Up on the roof

Jonna — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:55:55 +0000

sunset on the roof

I’m hooked on my roof. For one thing it is cooler up there at night, the breeze is wonderful and if I open the door to the roof it cools the bedroom quickly. For another, I’m enjoying the vantage it gives me over the city.

It’s not the upper, upper roof, I’ve not quite gotten the nerve to go up there yet.

To get up there, first you put a small ladder on the lower roof so you can get on top of the housing for the water filter. Then you haul a really high ladder up onto that narrow housing and lean it against the wall. Then you crawl up that to the top roof.

I want to go up there one of these days, it just hasn’t been the right day yet. Maybe when it is cooler, I’m sure not going up there at night!

Tinkerbell *aka the Angel Moroni atop the Mormon Temple

We had a huge storm the other night, invest something or other or perhaps it was the dregs of tropical storm Andres. When it started I put my highly accurate and scientific rain gauge in the yard (it’s also a green plastic bucket for mopping) and after about 2 ½ hours there was almost 4″ of water in it.

OK, I wasn’t really on the roof during that downpour. I was standing on the terrace and cowering in the living room with all the dogs. The thunder was deafening and instantaneous with the lightning. After most of it passed over us though, I ran up to see the sunset and the lightning flashing over the rest of the city. I even spent a long time futility trying to take a picture of the lightning.

Here’s how that goes: see beginnings of flash, eyes tell brain QUICK PUSH BUTTON!!, brain tells finger ‘ummmm, push button’, finger pushes, picture is of total blackness. Second option: stare through viewfinder at blackness, think that it’s been a long time and maybe now is a good time to push the button, push button, miss huge lightning flash because viewfinder is showing you the wonderful picture you just took of total blackness… do not respond to everyone around you that is yelling “did you see that??”

Flooded street corner

I did get some great pictures of an incredible sunset, as well as Tinkerbell* standing in her golden glory against the clouds. Then I looked down at the flooded street in front of the house and took some pics of cars careening through the water. It was a great night on the roof.

In other news, work has started on the inside pond. The offending wall in it that was precisely placed to catch the waterfall and disperse it onto the hall floor – is gone. The confusing array of pvc pipes and valves and unnecessary plumbing that stuck out into the middle of the pond – is gone. Two simple valves have been set into the wall and are invisible, there is a plug designed to be used around water installed, a space for the skimmer is forming and I’m very optimistic.

On Monday work begins on the drains in the guest bathroom and the laundry. They are below the roof drain and you know how water is, it just insists on going down. Our dry well for the front of the house is a flake, too much rock not enough cracks so the water from the roof backs up into those lower drains. A new path is in the works.

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Up on the roof