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Friday, August 7, 2009

Well, It Must Be Friday (updated and updated again)

You know what would be really great?

If my neighbors decided to have their roof re-shingled.

Yeah, that would be great, especially if the roofing crew showed up at, say, oh, 6:30 in the AM and started running power tools, generators, compressors, and a great big giant fucking forklift.

Yeah, that would be really, really great.

The pounding from the nail guns, that’s a nice touch too.

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[update]

You know what would make it even better?

If the guys who just showed up to help brought a big damn CD player.

And they liked speed metal.

Yeah, that would be really great.

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[update X2]

They didn't finish.

They got all the old shingles ripped off.

They got two rows of the new shingles put on.

They were working hard.

Then they stopped for a ... break.

I detected the faint pungent smell of burning rope wafting through the trees between my house and the neighbor's. If you know what I mean. It's Alaska, a oregano break is not exactly illegal, or uncommon - providing you're not trying to sell a bag of MatSu Growlight Gold to the local children.

After the ... break, they were a whole lot less, um, focused. Their work had a certain randomness mellowness to it. The sky seemed brighter and more interesting, the clouds were groovy. I put on some Jefferson Airplane, just to be helpful - they really seemed to enjoy White Rabbit.

About 6PM they sort of covered the rest of the roof in a couple of strips of tar paper - then they left. Presumably to go buy some chips, beef jerky, and some ding-dongs.

They did not come back.

Around 7PM I saw my neighbor outside staring at her roof and yelling into a cell phone. I assume she was complimenting the roofing company on the quality of their work.

About midnight, it started to rain.

It's still raining. Forecast for tomorrow? Rain.

Don't see the workers anywhere this morning.

I suppose I should go offer my neighbor a bucket or two or three.

30 comments:

  1. Please. Make. Pounding. Stop.



    Fuck it. Where's the key to the gun cabinet...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm... I need to shingle my pellet house this weekend - I was going to wait until about 6 on Sunday morning before I got started.

    I hope they're quick, Jim.

    Now's the time for you guys to try out that water balloon launcher, right?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Actually, Karl, I'm thinking of trying out the Cat-O-Death rapid multi-barrage launcher.

    Good God, Larry! It's raining angry Tabbies! Run!

    ReplyDelete
  4. hee! Cat-O-Death!

    I didn't say you had to launch water balloons :) It could conceivably launch just about anything under, say, 11 pounds - depending on range... Bags of leftovers, roadkill bits, things you might find in an RV park septic tank. You're going for highly mobile, lightweight, and rapid-fire, right?


    Glad I'm not roofing in your neighborhood :|

    ReplyDelete
  5. Roofing at 6:30 am must be an Alska thing, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, the sun will have been up almost an hour already and it'll be getting hot (~55F). I don't know about you, but I don't like being up there cooking myself. And I'll be up by 5 lining things out for the day anyway, so...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, yeah, I can see not wasting a minute of daylight.

    But the fucking noise is killing me. I can't write with the banging.

    Looking for a program for my Blackberry. Then I'm going out to the shop and make some noise of my own.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm gone from my house Monday-Friday, 5:15 am until about 6 pm, so on the rare occasion that I need to hire a contractor, I try for Saturday. Guess what? They're always busy on Saturday. Except when one of my neighbors needs something done. Then they're available at 6 am on Saturday morning, when I'm trying to sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry for the pounding you're putting up with - hope your own 'noise' drowns 'em out.

    ... I'm going out to the shop and make some noise of my own.

    Ahh - I can still hear the shhhhhhhhhhhh of the dripping wet green spruce blanks I made last night - hopefully they'll be a matched set of 11-1/2" bowls - guess we'll see in about 5 months. And knee-deep curlies help dampen sound, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Once upon a time I was sleeping late on a weekday because I had the closing shift where I worked. Nice spring day, windows open, breeze blowing.

    Suddenly and with NO warning, the window sill next to my bed explodes, shattered into the room - pieces hitting me in the bed in the process.

    Leap up and yank open the curtains - to find the landlord's favorite handyman knocking the shit out it with a sledgehammer!!

    WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING???

    Oh, he didn't know anyone was home and he was supposed to replace the water-rotted window frames that day.

    About that time our 90 lb German Shepard got to the window and almost leaped out at him. Told him not to move or I'd let go of the snarling mouth-full-of-teeth's collar.

    Call the landlord - phone in one hand, large growling monster in the other...

    um, did you forget to tell us something?? Especially since he doesn't know the DOG??? I guess so...I'm going back to bed now, after I've cleaned up the splinters on the floor and bed so the dog & I don't need medical attention.

    Your guy can come back AFTER I've gone to work and I will put the dog in the other bedroom, but as you did not warn us about this work, so we could arrange for one of us to be home (like is spelled out in our lease because of the dog) we cannot be held responsible if she gets out or damages the other room trying to get out to the workers invading the house.

    Yeesh. They ended up rescheduling when the husband could work from home for the day. Had to put a board on the sill they'd smashed for a couple of weeks until they could do the work. Which of course flooded the bedroom everytime it rained!

    Idiots!

    WendyB_09

    ReplyDelete
  11. That last line in your comment is redundant, Wendy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. On another note -- and sorry for the off-topicness of this -- your issues with Twitterberry may not have anything to do with the app, Jim. All of the BB mobile apps have been unable to access Twitter for most of today so far as I've been able to tell. Twitter is still dealing with the DDoS attack and they kinda went overboard with banning IPs in order to get their service back up.

    My husband and I are using Viigo (we both switched to it recently as an aggregator and it includes Twitter service) and neither of us had any access until just a few hours ago.

    Also, if you still need to know how to uninstall an app, let me know. I have an 8310 but I can walk you through it, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  13. speed metal?

    Now you need a potato cannon and some used D batteries...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Songtress, I am slowly realizing that the problems I've been having since yesterday afternoon are not actually me, but Twitter.

    I didn't know about the DoS attack until just a bit ago. Been busy, and haven't been paying attention, I just assumed it was the phone. Should have known better.

    I did install Twibble, and don't like it. I hate non intuitive interfaces.

    I also installed Checklist Pro this morning, because I need a good checklist program - what a total piece of shit. Handango really screwed the pooch on this app.

    Later tonight I'll deinstall the new apps, if I have problems I'll ping you for help. Thanks for the offer BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Karl,

    I've cranked up the 60's rock and roll. These little roofing punks are getting an education in Rod Stewart and the Steve Miller Band today. And my sound system is 50HP 3Phase, I win.

    If it keeps up, I'm going to unleash the Badger Howitzer.

    ReplyDelete
  16. You're welcome.

    PocketDay Lists is what I use for a checklist program. I've currently got my business inventory lists in it, and our camping gear list, and I don't know what all else. They don't cripple it during the free trial period either. :) Highly customizable, fairly decent learning curve -- it's worth a try. One caveat: No math functions, so using it for shopping lists is right out if you want running totals.

    You might give also Viigo a try too -- completely free, really slick interface, and amazing content choices in addition to having Twitter access built in.

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I just need a simple checklist app. Something that lets me make a number of checklists, say to-do, groceries, shop tasks, etc. Ideally it would allow for subitems under each main item, e.g:

    _Light bulbs
    __40 watt 1 box
    __60 watt 2 box
    __3 way 1 box
    _ #10 Metric bolts 1 box
    _Sand paper
    __100 grit
    __600 grit
    __1000 grit

    and let me check shit off when I'm done with it, and then it goes away.

    I had the perfect program on my Clie PDA. It was shareware and the author doesn't make a BB/Java version.

    I don't need math, or colors, or dates, or anything else. Just the ability to make lists of items as I think of them and check them off when I'm done. Simpler is better. Feature sparse is what I want. less button clicking the better.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If your sound system is measure in horsepower, you definitely win. Now, where did you put the Meatloaf? Them boys need an educamation.

    Dr. Phil

    ReplyDelete
  19. Meatloaf? Phil, you are a genius. Bat out of hell coming right up.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jim, PocketDay Lists was made for that kind of list making.

    For example, I have cross-stitch patterns listed by designer/publisher. Under that is the title of each individual chart. So it ends up looking like this:

    American School of Needlework:
    3517 Beginner's Guide to Cross Stitch
    3528 Baby Borders
    3534 Fridgies

    etc. Each entry has a checkbox (optional) and when it's sold, it's checked off. I have this list configured to hide "completed" items, though they don't get deleted. If I get another copy I can resurrect that entry again.

    Now, this is Blackberry software so IMO there's really some unnecessary button clicking -- but I've had that complaint with every piece of Blackberry software I've used. I think it's just a Blackberry thing, but then, I never have gotten over my Palm Treo 680 either.

    Hey man -- the trial is free and it's like 14 days. :) It's worth a try. A Navy Warrant like you could probably make it do things I haven't even dreamed of yet.

    ReplyDelete
  21. If it keeps up, I'm going to unleash the Badger Howitzer.

    Too bad you don't have armadillos up there, now THAT would be some skull-crackin' firepower in the old Badger Howitzer. KaBONGGGGGG.

    And I would have gone with the Stones...just can't beat some Sticky Fingers!

    WendyB_09

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yep, Songstress, still have my vinyl copy as well as several later incarnations, the LP with fully functional zipper still intact!

    WendyB_09

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wendy, you are da bomb. :)

    None my original Stones vinyl survived an encounter with a tornado, unfortunately.What I've got is digital -- and while it's cool, it's definitely not the same.

    Zipper, huh? *envy*

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jim, dunno about a handheld client but try browser based app rememberthemilk.com.

    ReplyDelete
  25. *reads latest update*

    Well now I feel sorry for your poor neighbor. Stupid roofers. :p

    ReplyDelete
  26. I detected the faint pungent smell of burning rope wafting through the trees between my house and the neighbor's. If you know what I mean. It's Alaska, a oregano break is not exactly illegal, or uncommon...

    Ah, some things are just so universal! Nod, nod, wink, wink

    Of course you understand I'm talking about it raining before the roofers complete the new roof. Yeah, that's the ticket!

    ...One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, and the ones your mother gives you don't do anything at all...go ask Alice...when she's ten feet tall!
    [wail Gracie, wail!!]

    WendyB_09

    ReplyDelete
  27. I think the last time I had a roof done I would have prayed for them to show up at 6am rather then living under tarpaulins for nearly two weeks whilst they did maybe 20 minutes of actual work in any given day. As you can imagine I was less then pleased.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Badgers? We don't need no stinin' badgers.

    I say hit them with the ferret-thrower. I believe they've been made illegal in the Geneva Conventions, so you could probably pick a few up for real cheap.

    ReplyDelete
  29. NYC has fairly strictly enforced rules on when construction can start on a given day.

    Neighbor, with 9" thick common wall, was doing major renovation, which on weekdays was fine.

    However the first Sunday they started at 7 AM, 10 AM is the legal start time. Walked next door, complained, got ignored. Yelled 'GREEN CARD', and got dead silence for three hours.

    ReplyDelete

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