s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Wednesday at A&S, a bunch of people chime up with “Hey, it’s been a while since we had a party at your place !”, plus a bunch of new people have recently moved into the area and everyone’s feeling festive, so lo, we schedule a Day O’ Fun for Saturday. StephenR generously volunteers to help us get the back gutter on the shed (so we can get the inspector to finally sign off the thing…), and we need to do some serious work on the play we’re supposed to be doing at an upcoming event. So plans are: gutters, then play practice, intermingled with hanging out, and — weather permitting — archery, maybe some fighting, etc.

We figured out after putting the front gutter up that we really need two ladders. Luckily, one of the guys I commute with (John, who brought his kids up to see the alpacas a couple months back) says we can borrow his super-long painting ladder. Friday we’ve been showing Twelve Kingdoms (SO good, so VERY VERY good), and Saturday his kid has a soccer game, so Thursday we take a break from tidying the house and jump in the ute to go pick up this ladder. It’s been raining off and on for a couple days, and on the way out of the valley we swing around a corner and –

BANG!

We fail to miss a biggish rock that’s fallen out of the bank and onto the road. Yep. Flat tire. We limp into Lloyd’s place at the bottom of the valley and luckily they’re home, because we ran out without the cell phone. We bang on the door and ask if we can borrow their phone to ring John and the Automobile Association (we have a spare, but, it turns out, no tools). Instead, he has Stephen pull the ute around into their shed and the two of them change the flat while I go inside to admire their 150-year-old farmhouse, and provide a bit of novelty for Shaunie’s two wild boys. Then off we go to borrow the ladder, only an hour late. Aren’t neighbors great ?

Friday, I take a long lunch and Stephen and I go see Steamboy at the film festival — very pretty. Especially if you like steam-gear. The evening’s anime night goes off hitch-free, but Saturday is a mixed bag. A beautiful morning gives way to steady rain, so no archery or outdoor fun, and the gutters will have to wait. We do bring the girls into the shed for Maggie and Martin’s daughters to meet, and Concetta is limping. We grope her leg, but can’t find anything amiss — maybe it’s a sprain ? We’ll have to keep an eye on her.

While we’re out there, and it’s raining, we make another unpleasant discovery: the gutters we’ve already hung are canted the wrong way. Argh ! No water is coming out of the downspout — it’s all pouring over the endcap at the wrong end of the shed. We carefully measured the drop when we installed the gutter clips, so this means the whole front canopy is off-level. Did I mention Argh ? Right now, we think we’ll cut another downspout in the other end of the gutter, and just let the water go where it’s going — the alternative being to take down the whole front gutter (which is rivetted to the clips) and re-hang it from the purlins out. Bleah. The next question is: which way is the *back* gutter slanted ? The clips are already up… Fun fun fun.

Speaking of fun, though, the Day O’ Fun seemed to be a success, although I can’t vouch for how SCAdian it was or wasn’t. Mostly it was a low-key hangout, and that seemed to be was folks were after — that and a bottomless kettle of tea.

Sunday, Stephen and I head into town for a couple more films, checking out the F69 and getting some more Mexican in between. And now, a relaxing evening at home !