THINGS THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED

Today, the snow storm that hit Texas finally reached us with rain. When your roof has leaked and you haven't been able to get a roofer to come take a look at it, the falling barometer can look pretty ominous. The problem escapes me. The first time it leaked water into my house recently, I discovered that it when I heard dripping from the chandelier a few feet away from me in an adjoining room. Since there is a room above the chandelier, I checked upstairs, and sure enough the floor had received lots of water as the rain ran along the metal track on a closet and dripped down.

After putting a couple of waste baskets under the drips, it eventually stopped. Being a procrastinator I never took the two waste baskets away. A few days ago when it was very windy and raining, I heard the same ominous drip from the same chandelier. Upstairs, the two waste baskets were still there and one was half full of water--- but the floor was dry. Several days passed as i tried to think of someone I might call. By the time I could locate someone to figure out the problem, it has begun to rain again. So far I hear no tell-tale dripping. Does that suggest that it happens only when it is windy? I can only hope that it might be an overflowing gutter (not having cleaned them in more than seven years) but I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach to check. I am looking for someone who will install those gutter guards that don't allow leaves to get in and rot and clog the drain pipes and backup water under the eaves and all those terrible things that Nature forces on us.

It is impossible to make a house free of problems. There is no way to anticipate that will change in my lifetime. Just as with our bodies, we can do some preventative maintenance but wind and weather, fire and accidents, wear and tear, careless usage, all present the necessity for constant vigilance towards the care and feeding of the house.

Now I have to sit and be patient until I get called back on the requests I have made to have the gutters and roof checked and the leaking stopped. When that problem gets solved I will wait for the next one to appear. And so it will go until I cease to exist because I know that I cannot change the fact that I will cease to exist long before a trouble and maintenance free house is invented.