Windy as Hell

Had a nice visit in Des Moines. Got back, unloaded the car, very cold and windy, just about to start putting stuff away and Kim says "a shingle just blew off the roof". I went out to see whose it was, and it was ours. The first thing I checked was my possibly iffy work on the addition, but it was all good. Went around to the front of the house and there it was, way up on top. A couple we blown up and sorta stuck perpendicular to the roof.

I put on some warm clothes and put the ladder up, tying it on to the front porch with a big rope. Went to load up the tool belt with roofing nails, but only had really short ones. Got a bunch of longer ones from Geoff. Went up, didn't get blown off, and drove a bunch through what shingles I could get to without ripping more through the nails. Then I noticed that a lot of the shingles—including many that weren't affected by the blowout—were loose at the bottom edge, rather than stuck down like they should be. It's like the tar strip never melted into the next layer of shingles. The previous owners had it done in the Spring, so it's not like it was too cold, and it's had plenty of time to get all melty. Probably just a bad batch of shingles. I knew I had an old tube of roofing adhesive in the shop. Yup, but it was old and not squirtable. Luckily I also had an unopened tube. I loaded it up int he caulking gun and went to work, sticking down every loose shingle I could find until I emptied the tube.

Later on I sat down to relax and the news happened to be on. 52mph gusts in the Twin Cities they said. Hell.

Now I've got one lonesome cat that sure is happy to see me. Zappa is such a Daddy's boy. Squiggy is just sort of generally glad to see us, but Zappa is laying on the desk, being a hinderance to my typing speed and comfort.