Feeling dumb

I gave an acquaintance a ride across town Sunday night, with his bicycle in the bike rack on top of my car. After I dropped him off, and was driving away, I heard a loud rattle coming from the roof of my car. I quickly stopped and surveyed for damage or loose pieces, and found nothing in the street or on the nearby sidewalks. In the process of trying to get out of my car quickly on a busy street, I slammed my pinky finger in the door and trapped it. It hurt so much, that I yanked it out, without opening the door first. I am so glad I didn't pull off the end of my finger. I finally figured out in the light of day Monday morning, that I had lost a moderately large rubber seal off the end of the bike rack. Not a huge deal. But man, does my finger hurt. And it's purple, very swollen, and quite sensitive. I feel so dumb. This is the only time in my life I can remember having caught my finger in a car door. I've always felt so certain, that I was going to avoid that particular misadventure. Sigh...

Film On The Rocks

We had so much fun, watching "Twister" at Red Rocks Amphitheater tonight - the last movie in the 2017 "Film On The Rocks" summer series. Oh my gosh, what a sound system. We didn't need to see the twisters -- we could feel them in our bones! And the crowd had clearly all seen the movie many times, as they were calling out some of the fun lines along with the actors - "OK find this road… It's like, Bob's Road" - "We got cows!" - "Is there an F5? [everyone goes silent] What would that be like? … The Finger of God" - "That's no moon, that's a space station!" - such a culty kind of thing, it reminded us of "Rocky Horror Picture Show." The opening act, a fun band called "Gasoline Lollipops," kept us entertained until it was dark enough to show the movie. Many thanks to Jennefer, for making this fun evening happen!

Hurricane Irma

I spent several days before and during last weekend, helping Dad and Adele stay informed about Hurricane Irma, its predicted and actual path and strength. The weather forecasters were saying that Irma was the strongest Atlantic hurricane, category 5 with sustained winds exceeding 185 mph for several days, when it was approaching the Leeward Islands. I tried to provide some helpful advice, and some humor to keep things lighter, as they seemed quite (and justifiably) concerned, during the storm passage. Dad didn't seem very concerned, for the week before Irma actually made landfall in Florida, but he spent a few nights at Adele's house, which is a few miles farther inland than his place, while the hurricane was passing through. The prediction at first had Irma running up the East coast of Florida, which would have been a much greater impact on them, but it eventually went up the West coast, which was significantly farther away from them. They got through it pretty much unscathed, although the winds and rainfall were both very strong and intimidating. Adele's house developed a dripping leak, but it wasn't coming in very fast, and she was able to keep up with it, using a large bucket to catch it.

Basement leak... ugh!

I went into a basement storage room this morning, after freeing the stuck door, and found the carpet drenched from wall to wall, with a large six inch wide dimple on the ceiling. Not sure when it started, as I don't go in there very often. So much for the breakfast/walk routine. Frantically moved piles of stuff to other rooms. Safeco Insurance recommended a plumber and a water damage mitigation company. The first guy from the plumbing company came to evaluate - he pointed his infrared camera up, noted that there's a large area of cold (ergo wet) ceiling, and notified his company that they need to send the plumber to find and fix the probable leak.

Funny, haha 😞😡😬 that this water mess is happening at the same time I'm worrying about Dad and Adele in the path of Hurricane Irma. I guess we might have bad water Kharma in our family right now.

Update 9/7: Ugh. Didn't sleep well, after yesterday's water leak event. The bad news yesterday, was that the plumber got backed up (haha) and couldn't get to the house, and finally had to reschedule for late this morning. So, it was difficult to sleep very well, with the problem hanging out there unresolved. The plumber finally arrived, tore into the soggy ceiling, and found and fixed the leak, which was a pinhole in a hot water line. Replaced about six feet of copper line at the joints. Yay? The water damage mitigation guys will come tomorrow morning.

Update 9/8: The water damage mitigation folks lifted the carpet, and started the process of dehumidifying. Will check back tomorrow.

Update 9/9: The water damage mitigation folks came back this morning, pronounced the carpet bone dry, announced a negative asbestos test result for the ceiling, cut out the remaining moist ceiling drywall, and left warm air blowing up there to dry it out. They will probably be done tomorrow.

Update 9/10: The water damage mitigation folks came back this morning, tested for moisture in the ceiling and found none, and took their equipment out. I guess now I need to find someone to replace, texture, and paint the ceiling drywall.