Back to Reality

The lights are down, the decorations have been packed into boxes and stowed in the basement and the tree has been unceremoniously tossed into the gutter for the birds, mice and small street urchins to make into a home.

Now comes of the task of getting back to the real world. All the time off in the past two weeks now appears to have been put to no good use. I could easily use another couple of days just clearing ice damns from the roof.

I got the big ugly one cleared off on the west side of the house today and removed the miniature icicle that was trying to take root. However, I now find I should have been paying equal attention to the roof above the deck on the east side of the house. A five or six inch ice damn has developed there and water started dripping through the french door in the kitchen today.

I cleared away a three foot wide swath where the door is in hopes that it will open up enough to let the water drain off the roof rather than into the house. It will probably take a couple of days before I know if I was successful.

Here are a couple of pictures from up on the roof.

The picture to the right shows the mast where all my weather gathering equipment is located. It's on the peak just above the giant icicle site and this is looking east. It was quite a beautiful day although it never got up above the high 20's.

The picture on the left is from the same location only looking west. You can see the area where the two peaks empty to and create all the trouble.

I will probably be up there several more times this season to deal with the snow, ice and subsequent water.

I left the house yesterday morning for my bartending job and there was a car parked in our driveway right behind my rig. I didn't know what was going on but was able to maneuver around it and get to work.

I pretty much forgot about it until I arrived back home and it was still there. The door was unlocked so I looked around for a name. The contents of the glove compartment were emptied all over the vehicle so I was beginning to suspect I had found a stolen car.

The was no number listed in the phone book for the name on the registration so I called the police and actually managed to talk to someone. That has been a challenge with our police department in the last few years. Crimes are only supposed to happen during regular business hours.

Anyway, I got through and reported the Nissan Pathfinder I suspected was stolen. To my amazement, a patrol car showed up about fifteen minutes after I made the call. The officer told me that it was indeed stolen and she was trying to contact the owner.I was concerned that they were going to call a tow truck and haul it away and then charge the owner $300.00 before they could recover it. That happened to us a couple of years ago when Susan's car was stolen.

Fortunately, the owner was contacted and came and got the car. So, I have done my Crime Buster Good Deed for the New Year.