I got home from work about 8:30 Friday and my neighbor was outside putting tarps on his roof. He’d been working on replacing it for the past few weeks, but it’s been so dry that he hasn’t messed with tarps on the front of the house. Well, tonight there was some rain in the forecast, so he was messing. He’s probably near 60, and aside from meeting his wife when they moved in, I’ve never really talked to them. I made a comment about the challenge he was facing and headed inside.
About 9:45 I hear some thunder. I look on the weather radar, thinking of my neighbor, and see a few small blips off to the north west. No big deal, they’ll stay north. Then more thunder and some lightning. Should I go offer to help them? About 10:10 I go offer a hand. And he and his wife gladly accept. Shortly thereafter, the sprinkles start. Then the full thunderstorm. Bright displays of lightning, big thunder, lots of rain. He’s up there on the ladder & roof (found out he’s 61 and roofed when he was younger, so he tackled this himself) moving tarps and I’m helping tie off the tarps. We’re rigging things up the best we can in the middle of the thunderstorm.
Did I mention the aluminum extension pole he was using to push tarps in to place? Yeah.
His wife asked me if I knew Boy Scout knots, and I said, “Yea, I remember a few. I’m an Eagle Scout.” A few minutes later, she said, “I prayed to God that we would get some help, but I didn’t expect this kind of help from an Eagle Scout!” I told her to consider it my good deed for the day My knots did make it easy to loosen and tighten lines to get things in the right place.
We get mostly done and he sees an edge of the house that’s uncovered, so back up he goes… and here comes the thunderstorm. Danger close the lightning was striking. I tell his wife, “You should have him get down for 5 minutes, that’s awful close.” She doesn’t. He gets down and I made a comment about the lightning and how I told his wife she should have him come down… He said, “She didn’t say anything because she knew I wouldn’t.”
We get done and most of the roof is covered. They tell me they should do something for me and I say, “Well, you don’t have to, this was just the Boy Scout in me helping out.” I came back in, soaked of course, almost 2.5 hrs later. Sometimes it’s just nice to be neighborly.
Since I didn’t get in until 12:30, and then still had to shower and calm down, I didn’t wake up in time for my long run. I did get in 7.5 miles, just enough to hit 100 for the month.
Oh, a second pair of new shoes for the month. I got a 10% coupon from the local running shop, so I stopped in a week ago and bought a pair of Brooks Ravenna 4’s. They’ve been pretty comfy so far. I’ll be rotating between those and the Ghost 5’s for the remainder of my training.