So, we're up on the roof this afternoon, putting on the new shingles. According to the weather, we should have AM showers, and overcast the rest of the day. I called Toyin, Tayo, Terry, and AJ to help with cleanup, installation of new shingles, and all around good fun.. Toyin and AJ have never been on a ladder before, so getting them up on the roof was an excercise in patience in itself. They managed to carry nine bundles of shingles up on the roof, and Terry had alreaded carried 18 of them up himself. I just supervised, then dragged them to an appropriate place on the roof and away from the ladder.
Anyway, so we were on the roof for about an hour when it starts raining out of nowhere! It got to raining pretty hard before we got down from the roof. Funny thing happened though. AJ is terribly afraid of heights, but he helped anyway, just because that's the kind of guy he is. I thought that since he climbed up, he had overcome his fears and would be fine. But he walks over to the ladder, looks down, and then walks to the edge of the roof talking about jumping off. It is approximately an 18-20 foot drop. He seemed to think that was safer than the ladder, he was really uncomfortable going backwards down a ladder..
Well, without further delay, Occasional Ramblings and YouTube proudly present, "AJ is an Idiot", as filmed by Cathy and her lovely new camera phone... And just so no one is worried, AJ is fine.. All he received was a scrape on his arm... and that was from a shingle earlier...
I'm sure there'll be more antics after the rain stops..
We started tearing off the roof today... As expected, some pretty funny stuff happened up there.. It was much worse than we figured, we had seven sheets of 4'x8' plywood that was rotten. Mind you, this is only one quarter of our house that we are repairing.. Had to get a few 2x4's too to repair the joists. We had a good time, working from 6:00am to about 8:00pm. We tore off two layers of shingles, played demolition and ripped out the rotten wood, installed the new decking, and put down the tar paper. We start installing the new shingles in the morning. Thanks to Terry, Nicole, Justin, Tayo, Eddie, and Damon for helping out. The part that's really gonna suck is the cleanup. Waste Management wants WAY too much to drop off one of those construction garbage bins, so we just chucked the crap into the front and side yard, with anticipation of cleaning it up tomorrow. We're just going to shovel the stuff onto a trailer and take it to the dump, then run magnet sweepers to get the nails up. Got a good picture of Terry after we went through the roof and into the attic.. Will have to try to get it out of my phone and up here. It was just like a scene out "The Money Pit". That's one of my favorite films. Did you know that it was apparently filmed in the house I live in?? Not really, but it sometimes seems like it.. I really like the scene posted above, because that's the way we are now when something goofy happens to the house... Just laugh about it and go on. Kinda relates to my previous post, just be thankful we have a house to have problems with, because its much better than having no house at all and living on the streets..
Well, I don't have too much funny stuff to report just yet, but I will try not to disappoint tomorrow.
I just have to get ready for tomorrow... We have complained about the condition of our house for a bit. Today, God impressed on me to begin to be thankful for everything we have, even the things that don't seem to be that great.. Come to find out that a lot of things we complain about, we only complain about them because we're doing exactly what the Bible warns us against doing, which is comparing ourselves amongst ourselves... On the other hand, sometimes a little bit of comparison helps us to realize what our blessings really are... For example, we can complain all day about the high price of gasoline... Or, we can be thankful for the opportunity to drive is our private air conditioned vehicle, as opposed to walking everywhere, as many people do in third world countries. Matter of fact, you really see how blessed you are when you consider third world countries. We complain so much about the food we have to eat, without understanding that so many would love to be in our position to have a couple cans of whatever in the pantry (or to even HAVE a pantry, for that matter), some left over pizza, something besides digging through maggot infested garbage to find something edible, with no concern whatsoever of the taste, they just need to put something in their belly which hasn't received a deposit in days.... Or, we complain about the people we live with, our spouse or kids, whoever... When there's people whose families have been killed because they live in a country with a corrupt government, their cities ravaged by civil war...
We got a lot to be thankful about... Anyway, about tomorrow... Some friends and I are going up top to repair that leaky roof I been complaining about.. You know, you get 6 guys with two cases of water, 38 bundles of shingles, various roofing supplies, a couple of nail guns, and 100 degree weather, something funny is bound to happen.. I'm just bursting with excitement to get up at 4:00am to get started.. This way, we at least get to work for half an hour before the sun gets about 6 degrees hotter than the worst part of HELL on top of that roof...
Its been almost a year since my last confession. Getting close to time for the wife and son to go to Dallas for a week of youth church camp. So you know what this means.... Maybe I'll try to refinish the bathtub again. Whatever happens, I'm sure hilarity will ensue...
Little Black Man versus the Stones.... Me and Mr. Jagger go back a long way... Well, not really, but if you're gonna talk about the Stones, you gotta mention Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Never understood why women love these guys.. It has GOT to be the money, because... well, have you seen these two?
Well, you have now... This is not what I wanted to talk about... Last Sunday, I woke up at about 4:00am with a pain in my left side that I can only describe as what I would assume being shot feels like. So, I did what any man would do... Go potty... That didn't help a bit with the pain, but it did make my bladder feel a little lighter. I proceeded to walk around the house for a minute or two, hoping that it was just gas or something, that I'd be able to just pass it off (pun intended)... About five minutes passed before the pain got even more intense. At this point, it has spread around to my back and the middle of my spine, quite possibly the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. So I wake up my wife so we can pray and get something done about this, because at this point, it's getting unbearable. I'm just thanking God that we just got really good life insurance, because I was pretty convinced I just woke up to bleed to death internally or something crazy like that... now mind you, we don't have health insurance, so going to the hospital was not an option I had considered, especially considering how well off my family would be if I just dropped dead..
So a little bit later, I'm pacing back and forth in the driveway while my wife tries her best to convince me to go to the hospital. At this time of morning, the only thing open is the emergency room at the local hospital, conveniently located about a half mile down the street. It made my decision much easier once the crying started.... It was REALLY hurting now, making it very difficult to continue my pacing. So my wife wakes up our son to tell him what's going on. His job is to let his sisters down easy in case they wake up and I'm dead...
Long story short, after a lot of slapstick comedy and a CT scan, turns out I had four kidney stones, which I really don't understand since I am the national spokesperson for water drinking... They doped me up pretty good with percocet (spelling?) at the ER and said I'd just have to pass them... A few hours after the ER visit, its time to go to church... Needless to say, I didn't drive... So friends of mine prayed over me at church that day. Today I feel like normal. I have no recollection of passing any stones, although (GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD) my *filtered* felt like something much larger had passed through it and stretched out the inside for about four days. So, either I passed them while the pain killer was still working, or God just had mercy on me and dissolved them, leaving me with a little aftertaste as a reminder... Whichever the case may be, after all that, I think I'm gonna drink as much Coke as I can just to have a reason for the discomfort..
