roof day II

Here's the way the front roof looked during the tear-off.



And after shingles were put up (still not done)



Back during tear-off. The sharp-eyed will notice Charlie by the chimney (don't forget to click on the photo to enlarge it). So much for Charlie not being on the roof. He didn't spend much time there, though.



Baby corn. It's funny. For now it's just some rows of tiny plants. Soon it will become an environment.

So that's some news from yesterday. We got the peas weeded, so for a few days the garden is under control. Still some plastic to lay in unplanted spots, and two more hills of cukes to plant.

The roofing, which is being finished up now, went quite well. Charlie is very picky about such things, and he's pleased.

One nice thing was selling the car. We had it prominently displayed, as Mom said, and quite early in the day the foreman of the bunch walked over to it and said to his mates on the roof: "¡Mira el auto linda!" I strolled right over to talk to him, you can bet. He speaks English, which made it easier. We firmed up the sale at lunchtime, and then Charlie and I made two trips to RF to get papers signed. I had a hard time finding out from Madison exactly which papers we needed (I got different news from different people), so we covered out bets and have everything possible. Why someone has $1000 cash on him escapes me, but Jimbo says that it is not uncommon for laborers to carry a lot of cash. We talked to Curtis on the phone at the end of the day and he said the same thing. Nicolas will take the car today; he didn't want to take it yesterday (though he officially owned it), because he wanted to have at least a little paper work completed, since Wisconsin laws require the removal of plates. He lives in Minnesota, where plates go with the car. I had the feeling that he did not want to chance any kind of runin with the police. He has a Minnesota driver's license, but that doesn't mean that he is a legal alien. Anyway, he's a very nice guy, and he is most happy about getting the car. The fellow at our gas station down the road said we could get more money for it if we sold it to someone who'd put it in a demolition derby. We were not interested. The thought of it made me sick.

How nice that Bill has such highly refined management skills! Yelling into the phone is sometimes the only way to get stuff done. How terrible to have dicey elevators halt the progress of the move! Glad that all is back on track. I'm really enjoying the updates.

What is pork Diane? I make steak Diane quite often. Last night I caved and made steak on the grill, baked potatoes, and green beans. I did add one FC flourish, cilantro butter, which was part of a chicken recipe in the 101 chicken recipe book (also recommended).

The robot voice on my computer (as well as the damned bird clock) has just announced that it's nine o'clock, so it's time for me to go. By 8:00 I had three loads of laundry on the line. The trick to this is to wash the first load at night, giving me an hour leg-up. Yesterday I couldn't hang out laundry because of falling shingles.