{"id":18713,"date":"2014-09-12T19:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T02:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=18713"},"modified":"2014-09-12T19:00:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T02:00:42","slug":"boomorif-it-aint-one-damned-thing-its-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/12\/boomorif-it-aint-one-damned-thing-its-another\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOM!orIf it ain’t one damned thing, it’s another."},"content":{"rendered":"

So there I was this afternoon, waiting for BHM to come back online (seems that failed security update was a doozy), listening to the sound of roofers overhead. Scrape, scrape. Thud, thud. Bang, bang.<\/p>\n

Then — suddenly — BOOOOOM!<\/b> Absofreakinlootly sonic. What? What? What on earth have those guys done? But the sound seems to have come from the front of the house and they’re working on the back. They also go very, very silent very quickly.<\/p>\n

I look out the front window and there are … wires. Not just wires. Big, thick cables hanging down.<\/p>\n

I look further:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"DownedTreeandElectric_091214\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Out of the blue, on a windless 80-degree summer day an 18-inch diameter tree has crashed onto the road.<\/p>\n

\"DownedTreeElectricandCar_091214\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s my electrical service draped over the lower half of my car. Internet cable is drapped over the roof.<\/p>\n

The dear old tree also managed to yank the metal stanchion right out of the top of my electrical box and bend it in half, taking a chunk of the roof with it. (And of course, it just had to be a part of the roof that’s already been repaired.)<\/p>\n

Amazingly, though there were four vehicles where there’s usually only one, and the tree came down right next to the neighbor’s house, there is no<\/i> damage other than to my services and my work schedule.<\/p>\n

Even more amazingly, though the emergency required responses from the PUD, an electric contractor, county road maintenance, and Comcast, all but Comcast responded within half an hour. (This is especially remarkable because the electrical contractors have already been avoiding me for at least a month.) Comcast will be here tomorrow. Meanwhile I’m war-driving a neighbor’s insecure wifi, which isn’t working all that well, but under the circumstances, who’s complaining?<\/p>\n

Although the roof crew had to knock off, what with no power and loose live wires hanging hither and thither, they were great about it. Three of the four guys even hung around to help roll the pieces of the tree out of the road.<\/p>\n

When the guys started their roofing work this morning, I prayed, “Oh, please don’t let them find anything expensive!” Because you know that when people tear into an old house like this, they always<\/i> find something expensive. <\/p>\n

So you see, prayer works! They didn’t find anything expensive; they merely had it drop onto the roadway in front of them.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the tree that fell is on county property, so I’ll only have to cover the electric contractor and the brand-spankin’-new hole in the roof. And maybe the hour or so the roof guys had to hang around, unable to escape because of live wires looping over the driveway and service trucks blocking all egress beyond. But maybe not, too. They’re pretty good guys.<\/p>\n

In any case, they were awfully nice about it and I do believe I owe them the recreational beverages of their choice when they come back tomorrow. The neighbors, who couldn’t get in or out, were patient. And hey … it’s not raining. So all’s to the good.<\/p>\n

The little neighbor boys, ages 6, 8, and almost-10, thought it was the best thing to happen since their family’s fifth-wheel caught fire.<\/p>\n

Me, as Ragnar recommended for my last case of the blues, I’m going to “rub vodka on it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So there I was this afternoon, waiting for BHM to come back online (seems that failed security update was a doozy), listening to the sound of roofers overhead. Scrape, scrape. Thud, thud. Bang, bang. Then — suddenly — BOOOOOM! Absofreakinlootly sonic. What? What? What on earth have those guys done? But the sound seems to have come from the front of the house and they’re working on the back. They also go very, very silent very quickly. I look out the front window and there are … wires. Not just wires. Big, thick cables hanging down. I look further:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-improvement","category-rural-and-small-town-living","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}