Pictures of the mess

Here it is. Wonderful, hm? The rest of the tree obviously needs to come down, but I don't know how I'm going to pay for it.

I don't know if you remember other pictures of the yard to realize just how much ground this covers! At least half the yard.


From "inside." You can just see my swing to the right of the little white table. Both miraculously survived, although the canopy on the swing is a bit bent.


Poor redbud--the impact just popped it right out of the ground.


Another angle.


Taenzer, consenting to add perspective to the mass of greenery. She's been thrilled with her new playground. Although it definitely cuts down on her running room, it gives her lots of great new challenges with her ball.

Timber, just being his cute self.


I have another picture to add later. The guy who agreed to clean it up brought his wife and daughter out last night and darn if they don't have almost all of it cut and stacked, ready to be hauled away. It looks really empty out there now. He's still trying to figure out how to get the big branch cut free of the tree without killing himself, but they did a huge amount of work in about 3 hours. I'll have to try to keep Taenzer from dragging branches all over the place.

roof and taxes

Sounds like a book title, doesn't it?

I've been home today--splitting headache and upset stomach. And it's soooooo cold--I can't get warm (in fact, my temp is running in the low 96 range--96.2, 96.3). The Ts have been pretty good.

Last night I did my taxes on line. One good thing about being poor is you're eligible for this Free File thing--although I still don't understand why the heck the IRS doesn't have a direct-file, instead of sending you offsite to some other party which the IRS "doesn't necessarily recommend." That's trust-inspiring. Last year I used Turbo Tax, and meant to again this year, but for some reason instead of getting the short easy form it started waltzing me through this long, complicated thing and after about 20 minutes I just cleared the form and shut down, then went to a different site. Then I did the state tax. As usual, I'll get a refund of about $1k, and as usual it will probably go toward the credit cards--provided, of course, that the usual tax-refund emergency doesn't crop up. Yeah, you're right, I'm not very excited about it.

The insurance guy finally showed up today. I have to hand it to him--I wouldn't have wanted to be up on that very steep, very high roof on a day like this. He says they'll pay to have the chimney repaired, the north side of the roof redone, and the tree removed (the fallen part, not the standing part; at least I don't think so). He s aid I would get a letter and a check sometime next week. I'm not contacting anybody until I see the check and know what I have to work with.

On the sock front, I have about two inches to go before I reach the toe on the tube sock. Unless, of course, I decide I should make them 2-4 inches longer, to make sure they go well up over the ankle. If he has an 11.5 inch foot, the leg ought to be 6 or 7 inches long, I think, so that's, rounding up, 18 or 19 inches total length.

Not too cheerful today, but tomorrow is supposed to be warmer (35) and partly sunny, so that should help.

Roof Trubs and My Sweet Boy

So I take the headphones off last night around 11:00 and hear water dripping. Tracked it down to a location inside a wall that I judged to be about under the chimney stack. Called and left a message for the freaking claims adjustor.

This morning I called the guy who has done handy work for me in the past, and despite announcing his retirement, he very kindly came over this morning and climbed up on the roof to take a look. The worst damage he found was a hole he said was about the size of a golf-ball, punched clear through the roof by a tree branch (which was still in the hole)--he said he could see the insulation in the attic. So he patched that and a couple of other places, and checked that the flue is clear (it is, at least for now). He thinks it should last until I get insurance money (provided I ever do) and can get it repaired. I am very, very grateful to him, esp. since it started raining again this afternoon.

Last night (before the drip discovery) my sweet Timber boy jumped up on the bed, sat down, arched his neck and pawed my leg, then lay down. He was asking for attention, and he not only let me comb him as thoroughly as I've ever managed on one side, but when I got done, he flipped over and let me do the other side. This has never happened before, ever. I got his britches combed out on both sides, and brushed out his tail, got his very sensitive and ticklish ribs on the first side done, got his shoulders and foreleg feathers on both sides, and got a good start on his mane. He's got a lot of soft, fine undercoat in his mane and like Taenzer he tends to tangle behind his ears. I was just so thrilled and happy, I can't tell you. He got a couple of very good treats and a thorough neck and shoulder massage as a reward. My sweet baby boy.

And Taenzer was very good and patient about it and didn't get snarky with him. She got treats and hugs, too.

Then this morning neither of them would potty. Timber had got me up about 2:30 to go out, and so at the usual going-out time they both took a look, saw it was still raining and there was a small swimming pool at the foot of the steps, and decided they didn't have to go. So I put them in their crates and got ready for work. I was going to leave them there all morning, then decided that was just mean and petty and took them out one at a time into the side yard, and they both went right away. Silly dogs.

I don't know what I'd do without them. Sometimes it seems like they're the only positive things in my life.

The saga continues

No wonder those poor people in New Orleans and along the coast are still trying to get things settled after 2 years.

A week after a tree falls on my house, after being juggled around here and there--the original person on the phone, Brenda, Trish, Curtisi--Curtis finally shows up--drives past the driveway, when I specifically told him to park in the back. He had to have seen me standing there waiting for him, but what does he do? He drives around front, then goes to the front door and knocks--which I figureout because I can hear the dogs barking. So I trudged around front to fetch him, he comes around back and goes, "So, is that the tree?"

I bite my tongue not to say anything really sarcastic and agree that yes indeed, that's the tree. And that's the chimney cap. And that's the chimney.

And then he says, "There's snow on the roof."

"Yes, there is."

"Well, I can't do an inspection with snow on the roof." (Like it's my fault there's snow on the roof.)

And I'm afraid I pointed out that I'd called an entire week ago and that there hadn't been snow on the roof except that it snowed Friday (only I got my days mixed up and said Saturday).

And he said he'd had to drive 8 hours to get here because it was so out of the way.

So we didn't hit it off at all well. He's supposed to set something else up, but the way this winter is going, it could be May before I get anything done with this. Well, okay, maybe April. Or March. I TOLD him to call me at work, but I bet he tries to get me on the cell phone, which I only check once a week or so, except this past week because of the tree and the roof.

He gave me some kind of happy-happy handout which I haven't looked at yet. I'm sure it only explains how they'll do their best to not allow my claim. (she said sourly)

I'm really really tired. I'm sleeping too much and not eating enough. But it's been a pretty day, sunny and warm, and I've had the Ts out twice, and Timber came to campus with me to do his Level 4 On the Road test. My heart was in my throat when I took his leash off for the 40-foot recall--I didn't know if he'd come to me or take a look at all that land and take off. But he broke his stay at 30 feet and flew right to me. He came to *me*. I shed a few foolish tears. He chose me. We tried it again in the safety of the enclosed tennis court, and he did a lovely stay and recall, and then ran great big happy circles. I sure wish I had a big place for them.

But I feel like I took advantage of the day, and it's supposed to be snowy and cold tomorrow and Tuesday, and then I go back to work. :-P

Pooped

This hasn't exactly been a relaxing vacation. I wonder if I could take another week off?

Let's see--Saturday night the tree fell on the house.

Sunday and Monday I spent a good part of the day either calling the insurance company or waiting for them to call me.

Christmas night I was invited to dinner with some faculty members from the department and their teenage boys.

Thursday I spent chasing around (via phone)trying to get someone at the insurance company to talk to me. Finally got connected with a guy who said he'd be out tomorrow (more than a week after the tree fell) sometime between 12 and 2. I also talked to someone about fixing the chimney and removing the tree, and someone else about the possible damage to the west edge of the roof.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my brother and his family and my sister and her family, which was fun, but tiring. I'm not used to people. I'm such a hermit. And I love my family, but even with family I have trouble interacting with more than a couple of people at time. This was 7 people. But it was still fun. The serial-killer teddy bear went over well, I think, and my sister and sister-in-law were both impressed with the beaded tassels I put on the end of my sister's needle-keeper. My brother and sister (and her husband) were very interested in our aunt's letters, which I had made copies of for them. My sister hadn't been able to find the pictures and things of our father as a boy, but she brought a scrapbook one of his friends gave her when he (our dad) died, of cartoons he'd drawn over the years. Most of them to do with university life, clever and amusing, with a bit of a bite. There were xtra copies of a few, so I helped myself to show my bosses at work that even after 30 years, nothing much has changed! My sister, bless her heart, gave me subscriptions to Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits. We all took lots of pictures, and I downloaded and distributed mine last night.

We had snow yesterday, the fourth weekend in a row we've had bad weather, but today it's sunny and warmish and the snow is melting. I had to re-tape the plastic over the south window because all kinds of cold air was coming in (cheap tape). And the dried putty on the east windows is letting moisture from the house condense on the storm windows so we can't see out. I'm trying to figure out how to put plastic across the three windows and still be able to operate the blinds (since they're mounted inside the casing--if they were mounted outside, I'd just work around the mountings and cover the whole thing as if it were a patio door or something).

I was supposed to take the Ts over to a friend's, but when I called she was thinking 3, and that's just too late--the temps are already starting to drop by then--and besides I didn't want to hang around waiting all afternoon to take them out. So I packed them up in the van, went to Walmart to use my gift card (I can't wait to see the giver's face when I tell him I got a 1-pound pack of chicken jerky (Walmart is the only place in town that carries it now, damn it), a picture frame for a picture of Timber to add to my photo wall, and a set of little plastic storage cups that I'm going to use to teach the Ts scent discrimination--I'm sure that's not what he meant when he said "get something fun for yourself"), stopped at Hy-Vee to get them their semi-raw food rolls that I've been mixing into their kibble instead of canned green tripe--I'm not quite sure this stuff is as good for them, but it is saving me some money--and some alfafa sprouts and coffee and cheese for me. Then I brought them home and they ran around outside for half an hour or so. I think I'll take them out again at 2:30, then go do the cat. They put a new kind of litter in her box that's supposed to last for a month, but she's got kidney problems like many elderly cats, and I think I'm going to dump that litter and put in some fresh--it looks pretty grody to me.

Then tomorrow I get to sit around and wait for the insurance guy to show up and see what he has to say (mental note: crate Ts).

My sister and her family stopped by on their way out of town yesterday to look at the chimney and say hi to the Ts. What a mistake. I've been apologizing ever since. They're so quiet and gentle and snuggly and funny with me, I forget that they lose their tiny minds when we have company, particularly Timber. If they'd been able to stay longer he'd have settled down eventually--say maybe 45 minutes or an hour. Taenzer did a little better, except for the occasional sudden impulse to surge up into someone's face and slather them with kisses, whether she'd been invited or no. But Timber was just wild and uncontrollable. I was mortified. I'm supposed to be a good trainer and have well-behaved dogs. Obviously I've failed the Ts miserably. I'm wondering if I can hire the teenage boys from Wednesday night to come over every week and get him used to having people around. I've been trying to come up with a good training plan.

Bless his heart. This morning I was in the living room with Taenzer. Timber came into the kitchen very tentatively with his ball in his mouth. I called him, but he kept glancing at Taenzer, and I caught her giving him the evil eye. Poor guy, no wonder he spends so much time back in the bedroom by his lonesome little self. So I crated her and spent an hour playing with him, and he's just so generous and smart and sweet. Mental note: don't let Taenzer bully Timber, and make Timber-time every day. Of course she was mad when she got out of the crate and inclined to go after him, so I had to go after her. I don't mind if she's pack alpha, but I have to remember that all that snuggling she does is sometimes more in the interests of keeping him (and previously Annie) away from me than out of simple affection. The brat.

Well, I think I'll take them out again, then go do the cat. Then maybe take a nap!

Fun with Insurance Coverage

Okay, you may remember that I called the insurance people Sunday, and was told that my claims adjuster, Trish, would get to me Monday. Monday someone named Brenda called me and said my claims adjuster would call me w ithin the next 72 hours (translation: after Christmas). This morning I called Trish and left a message on her answering machine.

Trish called me around 5:30 this evening--while I had biscuits in the oven, of course--to tell me that the company had declared Saturday night's weather a catastrophe, and they have a different way of handling that and she was going to transfer me to the "Cat Center." The transfer didn't go through, so she had them call me, and I talked to Brandy, who told me my claims adjuster's name was Curtis, and she would transfer me.

Curtis wasn't available, and his answering machine cut out on me, so I called back and left a message.

Don't you think there's a potential video game here?

Brandy said, "What can we do for you?" I said, "I don't know--what *can* you do for me?"

The guy who used to do odd jobs for me stopped by when I phoned an SOS--I didn't expect him to come, because he announced his retirement, but he came, which was nice. He thinks he can take care of the chimney by knocking off bricks until the edges are even, then topping it with a metal cap and outlets. It won't look as nice, but oh well. He wants to do the tree, too, but I think I might see if I can get someone to haul it off for free firewood. Meanwhile, he noticed a place on the west side of the roof where it looks like the trunk hit on the way down--there is a noticeable dent--so I grabbed the guy across the street who's a fireman who does part-time construction work, and keeps a storage building across the street from me. He just happened to stop by this morning, so I ran out and explained what was going on, and he took a look at it from the ground, and said, well, it depended on what the insurance co. wanted to do about it--that some companies would pay to have the roof torn down and reroofed (which would be really nice) and others would give me $200 and say "Good luck." I told him I'd let him know which kind of insurance company I've got. He thinks the rest of the tree ought to come down, and no doubt he's right, but it cost $2000 to have the tree that didn't hit the house taken down, and I don't have $2000, so it's going to have to stand there until another storm blows it over. Hopefully this time the wind will come from the south--there's nothing north of that tree that it can hurt.

I admit, I'm sort of going to miss those trees--over there on the west, they shaded the house from the afternoon sun in the summer, and really helped keep it cool. They also kept things from growing in the narrow strip between the house and property line, but now I'm going to have to plant something there so it doesn't get all weedy. Or at the very least, put down a couple of layers of black plastic with a hundred earth staples to hold it down. But I am NOT going to plant a a couple of80-foot forest trees 10 feet from the house to get shade. There must be some other way.

Meanwhile, if the weather cooperates, my sister and her family and my brother and his family are going to be in town tomorrow so I've got to pay bills and feed the cat in the morning, and then spend the afternoon in a Holiday Inn Express room. Poor Ts. I'll take them when I pay bills, and I've set up an appointment to take them to a friend's new house to play in her backyard on Saturday.

It hasn't exactly been a peaceful holiday, eh? But it could have been worse. I'm not complaining too much.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy?

Not exactly.

Last night part of one of the trees around this place came down on the house. It took part of the chimney with it, but as far as I can tell the roof is still okay. The tree is filling up the space between the back of the house and the garage.

I've called the insurance company, but I don't really know what to expect. You'll recall they left it up to me to get rid of the tree that fell but *didn't* hit the house. I don't know if they'll claim that I should have known this tree would come down and refuse to pay, or if they'll cover it. Or how--I hope to god I'm not supposed to pay the contractors and then get reimbursed by Allstate--although they don't work that way with cars.

The claims adjuster is supposed to get back to me tomorrow.

I suppose the worst danger is that a squirrel may decide to go down the chimney...

It was about 11:30 last night--I was doing last call with the Ts, out the back door to try to avoid the wind from the west. Timber had just come in and I was putting the flexi on Taenzer, and there was this incredible booming crash and the house shook, and Taenzer decided she didn't want to go outside afterall. I ran out to look--in my beloved Lopi sweater which kept me warm and dry despite the wind and ice--and saw the tree and thought "whew! it could have hit the house!" Course it was pitch black, and I couldn't figure out where the tree had come from. I didn't realize the chimney had taken a hit until I took pictures this morning and noticed a big square obviously man-made object in the tangle of branches on the ground, so then I ran back out to take a look at it, and saw it was the cap with the squirrel netting on it, and a few bricks.

I was worried about how to get rid of the tree. Now I'm worried about the chimney. I guess it's safe to be here--I guess the chimney orifices are still open, as long as some squirrel doesn't decide to investigate.

One good thing is that Alice is going to be able to make it to the Quad Cities airport, I think. We didn't get much snow, so even though there's a lot of wind, she ought to be able to make it to the Quad Cities if she starts early and is careful. She's got a 4WD Rav4 with traction control, so she shouldn't have any trouble staying on the road. So she ought to be able to make it to visit her son and grandchildren.

It's so cold out. Yesterday I took Taenzer walking without a coat. Today I need to go out and shovel and it's just so cold--like 15 degrees with a windchill of 1 tiny degree. The sun's been out--hope it stays. It's supposed to warm up over the next few days.

I wish I knew someone who knows things--I don't know whether I should be worrying about that chimney or not. ALthough I don't know what I'd do about it if it turns out I'm supposed to be worrying. I mean--Sunday? Two days before Christmas?

I think I'll go have a small nervous breakdown now.