Month: June 2008

An amazing journey – 10 years and counting

Boyd

10 years.  Wow.  Who’d have thunk it?

Well, it was 10 years ago today that I got back to my desk from lunch and opened an e-mail from an unknown person named Barbara telling me that she thought she might be the parent I was actively looking for.  It’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years.  Healing that missing relationship has helped to heal so many things in my life.

But the best thing of all is that Babs and I have settled into such a good, loving and respectful relationship with one another and that we have maintained such a strong bond in the intervening years.  I never thought I wanted that, much less would treasure it as much as I now do.  Our reunion was so good for my soul.  I think we both really needed it.

I still remember how I felt a day or two later when a package from FedEx arrived and I saw Barbara’s picture for the first time.  I can’t even begin to describe to you how it felt, at the age of 33, to actually resemble someone for the first time in your life.  It was an amazing experience.

Barbara, thank you for looking for me when I was looking for you.  I can’t image life without you now and I am so thoroughly grateful you are part of my everyday life and my family.

Good News! (a/k/a “No Roof for you!”)

Boyd

The first contractor we contacted went over the roof carefully last night and found only minor hail damage – less than 6 spots in the whole roof.  They don’t even need to be repaired.  He speculated the trees all along the north side of the house broke the force of the hail so the hail didn’t hit as hard and cause as much damage as it otherwise could have.  Which is very good news because I didn’t really want to have to replace the roof.  Plus, he said our roof is in good condition and we’ve probably got another 5 years before it needs to be replaced.

We spent the rest of the evening cleaning gutters from the accumulated gunk that was already there (how did they get so dirty when they were so clean at the end of fall?) plus the blow down from the storm.  It was a wet, stinky, dirty job that took all night.  But the gutters were all emptied and washed down and are perfectly clean this morning, just in time for the next round of storms they think will arrive today and/or tomorrow.

Let’s just pray we don’t get any more hail.

This weekend

Boyd

I haven’t had the heart to write about it, but a hail storm passed over our house on Saturday and virtually destroyed our gardens.  I know they are only plants, and we are lucky that no one was hurt and the house wasn’t more damaged (no broken windows, thank goodness), but still – it was enough to bring tears to our eyes when we walked out into the yard after it was over.  H’s folks were over and we were just sitting down to dinner when it began.  The hail came in three big waves, the second of which dropped golf ball-sized hail.  The entire yard was covered in ice.   The other two waves dropped large green pea sized hail.  The hostas are just shredded.  I know they will look like hell this year, but should be fine next year.  Anyway, I called State Farm and started two claims this morning, one for my car, and one for the roof.  I’ve been trying to find reputable roofing contractors this afternoon to come take a look and tell us whether we have damage requiring repair.

Tonight we have to spend the evening cleaning up the yard.  Our large maples lost at least 1/2 their leaves.  Some of the trees even have bare tops – they’ve been completely stripped of foliage.  It will all be OK in the end, I just wish we didn’t have to deal with this.