It’s still raining here. And raining. And raining.
We’ve noticed that there is a rather, well, strong correlation between Michael’s activities and the weather.
Michael needs to lay a concrete foundation for his new shop. On the scheduled day:
It rains.
He needs to dig an eighty-five foot long trench that’s three-feet deep, lay in conduit, and pull wiring to run power to his new shop.
It rains.
The village puts in new storm and sanitary sewers on our street, and in the process requires us to install a new mini storm sewer that connects our sump system into the storm sewers. That requires Michael to dig a 45′ long trench three feet deep.
It rains.
We get everything in place to install a new roof.
It rains.
Are we the only ones dectecting a pattern here?
Now, if we lived in, say, Seattle, this wouldn’t raise any questions. But where we live? Our county has been declared a federal disaster area for drought, and this is the fourth year in a row where we’ve had drought conditions.
It’s dry – except when Michael has to work on an outdoors construction project.
Michael is in the wrong profession. No doubt about it.
He’s a rainmaker.
Rainmaker: One who is believed to be capable of producing rain (American Heritage Dictionary).
So, Oh Best Beloved, how are you spending your summer?
We’re preparing everything we need to put a new roof on our house.
Ourselves.
Oy.
In looking at the rafters, we’ve realized that, while our house meets code, we’d like the option down the road of putting on a heavier style roof, such as one done with tile or slate. So, since we’re already ripping things apart, we’re thinking about retrofitting our current roof with extra trusses that would bear the extra weight.
Trusses are expensive.
But… in case you’re wondering why one bothers with the expense of hiring costly engineers to design roofing trusses, instead of having Joe Handyman slap them together…
Here’s the answer.
(Truss models generated by Michael, my very own beloved engineer!)
This cartoon cracks me up on so many levels…
(Reprinted with permission from coxandforkum.com)
Researchers have discovered that a collagen protein they’ve mapped from a T. Rex is ‘extraordinarily close’ to that of:
A chicken.
Think about it.
I can’t stop laughing.
“And here’s the terror of the Jurassic Period, chasing down his prey: ‘Bawk bawk bawk bawk SQUAWK!!’”
Makes me wonder how ol’ T. rex would stew up, topped with some nice dumplings and served with a chaser of shoo fly pie…
Spring has arrived in our little village. As is usual here during this season, warm days full of glorious sunshine are followed by precipitous drops in temperature, with sometimes as much as a 50 or 60 degree ‘bounce’ in the temperature’s highs from one day to the next.
Two weeks ago we had record highs – 80F – accompanied by treacherous thunderstorms that spat hail and pounding rain. Today, however, we had one of those rare spring snowstorms which carries within it huge flakes the size of quarters that lazily drift and swirl in patterns that make me feel as if I’m inside an enormous snowglobe.
It is indescribably beautiful.
Musings, Village Life | JAS | 
October 16, 2007 9:41 pm | 
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