Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

It never rains but....

Bubba with his puddle.

Monday's storms proved troublesome.   For some more than others really.
We had a tornado warning during the day but the storms continued into the night. The usual, thunder, lightning, high winds, hail, torrential rain and drips.
The drips were actually way more worrying than the wind, hail etc.
We were watching TV with Bubba, shown above, snoozing next to Philip on the sofa.
Then Philip noticed the drips.  They were coming from the ceiling.  The biggest worry regarding this was the fact that we live in a two storey house.
Therefore, there is a bedroom above the living room.
The drips were falling quite regularly but they were not making the sofa wet.  Oh no...they were forming a puddle on the still snoozing Bubba.
He seemed completely unaware.  He reminded me of the dinosaur we were taught about at primary school.
You must remember - the one that Teacher told us about - you could tread on its tail and it would take 20 mins for the news to travel to its brain to let it know it had been trodden on.
Well, the news that he was getting bloody wet had yet to reach the catatonic (CATatonic - did you see what I did there?) Bubba.  His puddle was growing.

Philip checked upstairs.....no sign of water on the floor.  Somehow this was coming from the roof and getting into the downstairs room.   The plot thickened.

We called our hero, Marty, he of the bathroom fame, and he promised to take a look the next day when the deluge should be over.
In the meantime we were despondent.  We can't afford another huge maintenance bill.  Does it ever stop?
Marty arrived the next day, took a look, and asked whether we had cleaned out the gutters yet this year?
The top gutters!!!   We have lower gutters, over the first level, but he was asking about the top ones.  Those way up there where the eagles nest.  Those ones that you would need breathing equipment and a team of Sherpas to reach.
Those ones. 
This year?   We have never, ever cleaned 'those' gutters since we have lived here - almost 8 years.
Marty said, "Well, there's your problem." - like men who know what they are talking about always say.
He offered to lend Philip his 500 ft long ladder to do them or if Philip didn't fancy climbing up that far ( without a parachute ) , then he would come and do them.
It didn't take long for Philip to decide that he would prefer ( would rather eat a truck than climb that high on a ladder ) that Marty take his life in his hands and venture up there.
After I got home from work yesterday Marty came and said he had done them all, front and back, plus the downspouts, while I was out.
He said they were absolutely crammed full.  Even the downspouts were totally full.  He said the squirrels must have been very busy as, apart from leaves and debris, they were full of acorns.
It was a relief that they were all done but I can't help thinking about those poor squirrels and how mad they will be when they find out someone has pinched all their nuts.

posted by Sue Banks @ 9:02 AM