I am re-screening our screened porch – because I know how, and because it needs it badly.  Today, I set out early.  I am beginning to put up the new screen, and that is exciting to me.  Unfortunately, I got a little side tracked.  I had been toying with what to do with the gutter down spout that was attached to a piece of lattice trim at the corner of the porch.  Actually, there are two.  I tried, twice, to make the screen fit, without removing the gutter, but it just did not look as good as I knew it would, so off the gutter came.  With this came the realization that the gutter had been painted umpteen times, and really would look better if  I replaced it altogether.  While I was standing there, something dripped on my head.  I looked up.  It was water and gunk coming from the hole in the actual gutter – where the downspout had been connected.  Ugh. I knew what I was going to be doing.  Cleaning out the gutters.  Don’t misunderstand me. I can totally pay someone to do this chore for me, and I am not complaining about doing it, but if I want something done, say, well, now, for instance, I’d best just do it my damn self! The added bonus would be that it would be free. Also…..I absolutely love to get on my roof.  I don’t really know why that is. It just is.  So up I went.  The neighbors cannot believe that I do this.  When they see me up there, they usually stop to yell YOU ARE SO CRAZY! BE CAREFUL! YOU COULD HURT YOURSELF!  Maybe that’s part of the attraction? I don’t know. I feel really, really safe up there. Even on the highest side.  I’ve even gotten up there with an electric saw, and cut down limbs.   I just don’t mind it.  I was kind of disappointed today when I was finished and had to come down.

Right before I came down, I caught a glimpse of our back yard.  I stopped and stared.  Was that really our backyard? The pool is so blue and pretty. The landscaping is coming together.   For so many years, our back yard was the bane of my existence.  I would start in January, clearing as much as I could.  It was like a wild safari.  I removed the rotten deck with a crowbar one year.  Last year, we hired people to come in and fix some things, and now, well now, I’m pretty damned proud of it.  A couple of weeks ago, I used our old picked fence to make a solid fence to hide the pool equipment.  I cemented the posts into the ground and everything, then I stained it a lovely shade of gray. From the roof, it was lovely….. I’m sorry I did not take my phone up on the roof with me, so I did not get a photo. Next time…….

So I left for Home Depot.  I was going to get the stuff to replace the gutter downspout that I had already removed and the one I will remove today or tomorrow, as well as some other stuff.  It was still a beautiful day when I left.  I did not worry that I had left the old gutter just laying there in the yard…… Then, all hell broke loose and the thunder storms of thunderstorms started.  By the time I got home, the entire Hosta bed, just outside the screened porch, where the gutter downspout was now missing, was completely flooded.

Go figure.