From Tears to Triumph

After a sleepless night of listening to the wind veritably demolish our brand new gutters with tree branches, I marched off to Lowes this morning with bloodshot eyes, trembling nerves, and nothing short of "DEATH TO THE BRANCHES" screaming in my head.

On his last visit, my dad had suggested that maybe one of the branches was too close to the second story gutter, and that it would scratch it in the wind. Little did we know (until last night) that the wind could lift and drop the branch INTO the gutter, and then as the branch attempted to spring back into place, it would streeeeetch out the key element of our rainwater harvesting system, and then eventually free itself, resulting in a loud THUD as the gutter snapped back to its original form.

With every thud I reached new levels of pained insanity I never dreamed could be caused by gutters. One might suggest that I'm a little too attached to the house/material possessions/etc. Maybe that is the case. But I tell you-- it was SICKENING to listen to the destruction and feel so helpless.

And now, sleep-deprived and yes, a little high on my recent victory over the branches, I am sharing photos. Thankfully, our other main investment into the house, new windows, made the success possible. They are double-hung and the sashes lift out, which means I could reach the branch with my newly purchased pole saw from the window.

BEFORE

AFTER

the tree I have forgiven

The squirrel* who supervised my progress from the chimney top.

*We call him Sammie. I made it our policy to call all the critters around our house Sammie, so that when visitors come over, we can say, "oh there goes Sammie" and they will think we're really one with nature and that we have given all the wildlife individual names and can distinguish one squirrel or lizard from another. (My theory is that rarely would the same guest catch us calling two different animals the same name. I am trusting that any Austinites reading this will not tell other Austinites whom we have yet to impress. Please give us a fair chance to seem cool).

Now on to the projects I was SUPPOSED to be doing today...