Roof Debris

There is more involved in getting life back to "normal" than I thought.  I had left the house very clean, but the yard is another story.  I had mostly picked up the front yard the morning after the storm.  Chris did some cleaning in the back, but we planned to really tackle it when we returned.

While we were away, some work was done to our roof.  Our roof is slate, which is beautiful and long-lasting, but pricy to maintain.  In fact, this summer, we put $4,000 into our 74-year-old roof.  That is half-way to a new asphalt roof, but keeping up this little piece of history is important to us.  I know that sounds silly.  Anyway, the pop-out of the roof in the back needed to be re-done.  We didn't anticipate getting on the roofers' schedule for some time due to all of the emergencies from the storm, but I guess they did it while we were away.  And left the outside water on and a ton of a mess out back (black scraps--tar and paper, I guess).

Here is the view from the street behind us.  See, we also had new copper flashing and a cap put on.  Copper is expensive stuff!  Looks pretty nice, I think.

So, I knew we'd need to clean up the backyard when we got home, but I didn't expect clogged gutters and black mystery roof scraps everywhere.  I think we are going to need a very long ladder (which I think Chris's uncle has).  Because of this, Eliot isn't really allowed to play in the backyard.  Instead, we've been playing out front, which really is fine because the front is more shaded anyway.

Yesterday evening, my friend Stephanie came over with her newborn son, Azriel.  Their power came back, but their AC did not.  Roof scraps in the yard are no big deal at all compared to lacking AC with a newborn!  I was happy to share our AC units and homemade pizza.  Eliot kept trying to give Azriel his paci and share raspberries.  He calls babies "buh-buh," which is pretty good, I think, for not seeing that many babies.  I always think it is funny when a baby recognizes that someone else is smaller.  And maybe it is a little reminder that our baby isn't actually a baby anymore.