When you are getting old......you hire it out

I no longer climb onto roofs.  I did this regularly as a younger man.  I felt confident, and was careful.

But now I feel age creeping up on me.  I'm 68, and although we do something active every day to keep in shape, my balance and coordination isn't what it used to be.  In addition, I have a lot of steel in my right foot from three foot surgeries.  That foot isn't as limber as it once was, and doesn't give me the same feedback it once did.  Too many nerves were cut to get it back into shape.

Last year we also decided that cleaning the gutters was no longer something we could do.  It meant, for me, carrying around a heavy ladder.  I have a healthy respect for ladders.  In fact, when I climb one for some purpose I put on my bicycle helmet.  I would wager that more people sustain damage to their brains from ladder falls than from biking accidents, so it seems a smart thing to do.

Because we live in the woods our gutters are ripe for being filled.  For several years I would tote the ladder around three or four times a season and do this. I hated it.

No longer.  For a reasonable price we can hire two young men who can do this.  They scamper around on the roof like I once could do.  It is safe for them.

The main threat to our health and life-style isn't an illness.  Instead, it is an accident--a fall.  So we take all kinds of precautions.  Hiring this work out is an example.  Never hiking in a place where a fall could injure anything except an ankle is another.  Driving under the speed limit.  Cycling only on carefully chosen roads, and with enough red lights on each of our bikes to mimic a police car.

Here is how bad the roof looked with all of the fallen limbs on it:

Well, guess what?  The guys cleaning the roof and gutters found that one of the large branches that fell on the roof did so in such a way that the sharp edge went right through the roof.  So now we have a hole in our roof.  We are so happy!

So, today called a roofing company to come look at it.  Will require a temporary patch and then two new panels.  All of this from wind.

And we are STILL picking up branches.

So far we have made four pickup loads, several wheelbarrow loads, and many armfuls of branches to cart away.  And we still aren't done.

Wind and rain....Whidbey Island.

(we love it!)