DOWN THE CHIMNEY

January 28, 2008 was just another Monday.  We had heaps of snow and the wind was roaring out of the southwest between 30 to 40 mph.  DH left for work and I was almost ready to go myself when I heard a loud CRASH.  I ran around the house and looked out all the windows to see if I could see any damage.  I thought maybe a giant pile of snow had broken loose and avalanched off the roof.  Or maybe someone had missed the turn and crashed into our house.  But nothing looked out of place. Then when I went outside to start my car I saw what had happened.

 Years ago DH put up a big tower for the antenna of his amateur radio.  Although I told him I thought it was a bad idea; he decided to stretch one of the guy wires across the roof and anchor it to the cinderbrick chimney of our fireplace.

 After being tugged back and forth by the tower in every wind, the chimney finally snapped off just above the roof line.  The big noise I heard was broken bricks crashing to the metal roof and almost breaking through it.  

I went inside and called DH.  Then, fearing the heavy debris might fall all the way through the living room ceiling I pushed my glass front nick-knack cabinet to another corner of the room all by myself.  It’s amazing what the power of adrenalin can do.

DH came home and we went up to the attic to view the damage from the inside.  We found two roof joists split, but not broken, and that section of the roof sagging under the load.  The first thing that needed to be done was to remove the weight.  The roof is steep and slick so this would not be an easy task.  DH wanted to climb a ladder which would have to be set in the shrubs against the house.  The whole idea sounded so treacherous in so many ways. 

I suggested he talk to the men who were working on a building not far away.  They were using a large hydraulic lift to raise big bundles of shingles to the top of their construction.  Maybe they would help us? 

Early the next morning DH walked over to the building site and talked to the workers.

Almost before he could get home they had their big machine backed up to the house and a guy was asking where to throw the bricks.

I tried not to complain when DH told them to just toss them into my rose garden.  Fortunately the heavy snow broke the fall of the debris so little damage was done to the roses or the travertine pathway.

 DH asked the workers how much they needed as payment for the work.  They said, “No charge, we needed to warm up the lift anyway,” and drove it back to their job.  Later my dear hubby brought lumber up to the attic and braced and repaired the damage there.

This was one of the first posts I put up on my blog.  Somehow the original ended up in cyberspace.  I decided this event deserved to be preserved so I've posted it again.