Sorting out the guttering

 A few months ago I had noticed a new sound. It came from my flat roof. It sounded like water falling. And a look one rainy afternoon confirmed that. It came from the southern end of the house! There was something with the guttering but I hadn’t been able to see exactly what. I put fixing that on my to do list, but it never reached the top.

Then one day the neighbour knocked. Could I do him a favour? The water falling on my flat roof was also falling on the ground next to it, and eroding out an unwanted depression on his terrain. Could I sort that? And that promoted the chore to somewhere near the top of the to do list.

The morning of the race I had had a closer look. Some guttering was indeed loose. That must have happened when the rendering had been redone! That was SO long ago. I was a bit embarrassed. But it was clear what needed to be done to fix the problem in a way that would do for now: guide the water to the flat roof. Maybe in the long run I would want to guide it all the way down. That would be a bit more work! Maybe I could discuss that with the neighbour. At least I would have to check for the nearest drainage point.

The evening of the race I was celebrating Dave’s birthday. I had felt the race in my system, and not managed to stay upright beyond 11:30. Dave had lasted longer. And that meant he hadn’t got up particularly early! But he had been warned: I had asked him to help me. This is exactly one of those chores that is a lot quicker and less onerous if you do it together. So as soon as we came to my house we set to work. I had got most tools ready!

In five minutes we blitzed that pipe into position. Success! And that was great, as now we could do something enjoyable the rest of the day. It was noon by then, but that left the entire afternoon. A chore I had been postponing for months was off the table! That felt good. And having someone to do it with did too. And the weather was nice…

Fixed!