Scooterin!!

A retirement kind of a day was in store for today.  I awakened with a nasty sore throat, and since this was the third day that it was like that, I called the Doctor's office to see if I could get an appointment.

And yes I got a 10:45 slot.  I needed to go anyway, because I hadn't had any lab work for several months, but since it was almost noon, I couldn't fast that long.  So at least I got the lab orders for a day next week, and that will continue my prescriptions for all those diabetes meds.

Diabetes is a nagging disease that seems to never go away.  It just comes along like life itself, and plagues you at the worst times.  So ignoring it doesn't work too well.  And I did get an antibiotic to kill the nasty germs that are causing the sore throat.

I explained that we all were in the lake cabin, and that we had 5 grand kids.  None of them seemed to be sick, but that somehow I came away with the bad throat and lungs.  The Doctor's comment was a classic "Kids are like living petri dishes."  The practice specializes in pediatrics, so he knows exactly what he is talking about.

I rode the motorscooter over for the appointment, and had on my scooter pants, and had left the jacket under the seat.  But the Doc picked up on the armored pants right away and wanted to know how they worked.  I'm sure he thinks I am nuts for riding the scoot, but he was interested in the protection provided by the clothing, and wondered why all folks don't wear it.

I had to take the prescription to Wal Mart, so that morphed into a shopping trip, and then I had to return for the pills an hour later.  The turned into the Wendy's stop.  Land, I was on the bike all day........

After taking the first antibiotic, it seemed to put me to sleep, mostly because I was up a lot of the night, so I can't remember a thing after that.  But tonight, I did the twilight ride that I had missed last night. I rode out thru the country to Gardner, Ks and stopped at the Wal Mart there.  Oh and an Arbys for Jr Roast Beef sandwiches at $.99.  And a water, just call me cheap!!

What a wasted day, but I do enjoy riding the scoot all over the place on a 90 degree day.

Retired Rod

A surprise from the rain spout!

Sometime during the night, it stopped raining, and we are all dry inside the house.  So the new roof seems to be a good job.  We did have one little surprise this morning, but we caught it luckily before it became a problem.

When it began to rain hard last night, the water washed some cap nails out of the eaves into the spout that empties onto the driveway right behind my wife's car.  These nails have a plastic washer about the size of a quarter that surrounds the nail head.  So naturally they tend to topple over with the washer flat against the ground.

That leaves the sharp point of the nail sticking straight up toward the sky!!  About 10 of these little devils were right in her tire track just waiting.  By some stroke of luck, I went out with the motor scooter in the mid afternoon before Loyce moved the car.  I thought to myself, I don't remember the roofers leaving those there.

Then it dawned on me that they had come out of the rain spout.  Of course, now I wonder how many more there might be.........

I didn't do much more today, but I did go over to the paintless dent place and they do have the trim pieces in and are waiting for us to deliver the car again.  I made the appointment for Monday.  And he indicated that the insurance company wouldn't pay him the overage on the estimate.  He now needs a check from me!!

I may be shopping for new insurance before this entire episode is over.........

I intended to go back out on the scooter again tonight, as it was over 90 degrees this afternoon, and that makes for nicer dusk temperatures and a comfortable ride in the twilight.  But somehow I became involved in a watch sale from the watch company, that didn't get over in time for my intended ride.  Funny how these computers can do that to fellow.  Time just disappears......

Retired Rod

Roofers and the Air Conditioner

The roofers were done about 3:30 this afternoon, and it was none too soon.  I headed out to Wal Mart for some groceries and a few toiletries, and before I could get back home it began to rain.  The last nail was driven about 30 minutes ago!

They have a separate clean up fellow that drives around to all the jobs and does a final inspection.  He told me he had been roofing for over thirty years.  But that he is too old to do much up on the roof any more, so he cleans up the job sites after the rest have gone for the night.

It is now about dark and it has been raining for the last 4 hours.  I haven't had the nerve to go explore upstairs to see if we have any leaks.  Loyce said we didn't have any yet!!  Hope that remains the case..

Last night at about dusk, the AC guy finally arrived.  It was 7PM or later and he was just arriving.  The house was over 90 degrees inside by then, and I had a really giant fan going here in the family room.  The fellow was not able to diagnose the problem.

We sat in the basement next to the furnace and I explained how the failure took place.  How the fan would stutter start and stop for no reason.  He called another service guy and explained what was going on to him.  They had several ideas, but each time when that piece was replaced, it did not fix our problem.

At one point he thought it was bad batteries in the thermostat, and they were on their last leg, but new ones didn't help the system come out of its failure mode.  Finally they eliminated the heat pump control board in the outside unit.  It started right up and began to cool us off.

The repair fellow did some wiring to eliminate the board for the time being, as we won't need heat in the near future.  He was really wanting to call it a day and the AC was now running.

This morning I was called and advised that the part was $350, and the labor and service call would almost double that before we had it installed.  They asked if I wanted to order it?  Well, is there any choice???  It has to be able to heat us this fall.  I guess I could have waited for the heating season to begin, but who knows what else will go wrong by then.  Better get on with it right now....

The next project is to get a final bill out of the roofers, and try to get a final settlement from the insurance company.

It only took about 30 minutes for the hail to cause so much trouble on April 3rd.  But what would we be doing if it wasn't for all this fun?????

Retired Rod

Roofing!

Its a darned good thing we came back here last night as the roofers were on the phone at 8 AM telling us to get our cars out of the driveway and garage.  They would be here directly.

And as promised the crew headed up by a very tall blond headed fellow arrived with a big dump truck to begin demolition.  No one in the crew speaks english, and the tall fellow speaks spanish fluently.  I watched for a while, and he parks himself right in the middle of the roof with a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth, and barks out instructions in spanish.

Shingles just flew!!!  These fellows are really hard workers!

They were carrying this stuff over the roof to the front side and tossing it in the dump truck.

This is the tall blond fellow that was it charge as he was tossing a pile from the highest peak.

He had a helper that was alternating tossing stuff when the other guy went after another arm full.

The new shingles arrived and they put up the lift.

And then the bundles started going to the top.  146 of them along with rolls of felt and the cap shingles.

The guy in the yellow shirt picked every one of the 80 pound bundles off of the conveyor and marched it up to the peak of the roof.  At one point he stopped the lift and just leaned on it for a while.

I later found out that the delivery truck fellow worked for a different company, and that they contract to deliver and stack the shingles on the peak of the roof.  Both of those guys earned their money for the couple of hours they were here.

We had roofers pounding and air nailing all day long.  They are not done, they tore off three sides as they thought they could get that re shingled before dark.  They didn't want to leave bare wood overnight in case it rains before morning.

Retired Rod