Roofing

I never set out to be a roofer. Then Ike came around. As a result, Dave's roof was partially blown off. He needs it fixed, and I have the skills, and his insurance company has the money. Now I'm a roofer. Well, if only for a couple days.

I do get asked about doing roofs a lot and have always said that "I don't do roofs". Well I guess I lied. I actually roofed a 12x16 yard barn that I built for a guy a week or two ago. It wasn't that bad. The worst part is getting the bundles of shingles to the top of the roof, they weigh like 70 pounds or so. The only reason I roofed that barn is because the guy I usually get to roof it flaked-out on me (like sooooo many roofers do) so I was stuck doing myself.

Dave's roof is about 2600 square feet, or 26 squares as they would say in the business. It takes three bundles of shingles to cover 100 sq. ft. I'll save you the trouble in doing the math. It takes 78 seventy-pound bundles of shingles to do the roof. That's 5,460 pounds of shingle humpin' hell. Well luckily we had a shingle lift to help us get them up there. It's essentially a ladder with a gas motor attached to a pulley system that lifts a sled with a bundle of shingles up the ladder to an awaiting grunt (me). Then the grunt takes them from the sled and places them in a straddling position over the ridge of the roof so as to keep them from sliding down the roof and killing an unsuspecting person below.

I also stooped to the low of actually buying a roofing nailer. Now I'm really a roofer. As usual, I set out to buy a reasonably priced nailer that could handle the job. And as usual, I found myself researching the best nailers online and ended up spending $300 instead of $100-200, but I got the Porsche of roofing nailers. According to most it's the best one out there. It's also the only one that has 5 year warranty even for commercial use. Most have a 1 year warranty and it's only for non-commercial use. Okay, okay, I know you are all frothing at the mouth wanting to know what kind of nailer it is. It's a Hitachi-NV45AB2. Now bow before me and my nailer. Or maybe not.

Many who know me say that I have every tool in the world. It's not true, I don't have one of these: tool.

Well, I've about extinguished my literary fire for the evening. I guess I'll go build a real one in the wood stove and get warm. Until next time.

The family is going to expand

By the way, I didn't mention it in my first post, but as most of you know, Tracy is pregnant. She is due to deliver a baby girl on February 27. No complications have come up yet.

No names picked out yet, suggestions are welcome but not likely taken into real consideration. Just warning you. We probably won't tell anyone the name until she's born. That's the way its gonna be. Deal with it.

I should start this thing off with a mild topic: How about Politics!

Well, I think last night's debate put the final nail in the coffin for the McCain campaign and his "faith"ful band of bible waving religicans.

It's not all John McCain's fault. He actually has some respectable qualities. Although no one could ever have enough good qualities to overcome the stigma of the Bush administration and it's indefensible tenure (or "eighture", man just think if we still had 2 more years to go with that moron) of failed politics, poor judgement and its cloak of secrecy. It would take a miracle (and I don't believe in them) for a Republican to win this election after the last 8 years.

What is John McCain's fault? Picking that absolute nutjob Sarah Palin for a running mate. Wow, what a bad move that was. If you equate it to a chess move, as in reality it was, Bobby Fisher just rolled over in his grave. It's like having over sized ears and punching Mike Tyson in the face. It's like a straight man saying he's not jealous of Hugh Hefner and so on and so on, you get the point.

It's about damn time we had a minority in office. I'm tired of the era of gun toting, mud tire having hillbilly knuckleheads living in a pre-civil war mindset. They say he ain't no American. Well, in fact he is. And to add misery to that untruth, soon in this country minorities will become the majority, so stick that between your cheek and gum and suck it! Let's keep this pot melting!

I'm not going to tell you that Obama is perfect. Neither is he. I feel that the backbone of a good president is someone who listens to opposing arguments on both side of the aisle all the time and make sound judgments based on TRULY credible information from experts in their field. Or, another way of explaining my point would be to think of how the Bush administration makes decisions and it's the opposite. No one person can have all the right answers to running a country at the tip of their tongue, the best we can hope for is someone that can make sound informed decisions, and if the decision turns out wrong, admit it and try to solve the problem again. I know this is a foreign concept to Republicans, because for the last 8 years, the president hasn't admitted any bad decisions, so why would Republicans think that admitting they were wrong is an option.

The LAST thing I want in a president is someone that will inject and infect our government with any religion. Religion has easily been the number one source of conflict throughout the world in the past Milena. Followers of every religion think they are the ones that are right. How can this be? I think religion should go far, and the sooner it gets going, the better.