Makes Me Happy Monday : James

We had a limb fall through our roof back before Comedy left. It’s not an uncommon thing.  We live nestled under a large canopy of trees.  You repair the hole and keep going.

This is how Comedy repaired our hole. Yes. That is a ziploc bag and those are pushpins. He told me more than once that he was going to come back and fix the hole. He has told us a lot of things. He never returned.

Sometime last summer, I decided that I was just going to HAVE to get over my fear of moving around on a slanted surface sixteen stories one story off the ground because the hole HAD to be repaired. I told James, “I’m going up on the roof.” I grabbed the ladder, propped it up against the roof and, with determination in my step, I climbed up those rungs. I carefully slung one foot over the ladder, planted it on those shingles and stepped forward.  Then I brought my center of gravity closer to the steady roof …. realized that I was immobilized and laid on the roof …. clinging on for dear life.

By this time, James had come to check on me.  He nimbly climbed the ladder and JUMPED over me like an acrobat. He began to dance on the roof … to show me how NOT scary it is up there.  He ran and jumped, leapt, twirled. Of course, I had a hard time LIFTING MY HEAD to see him. Partly because I was too afraid to look up. Partly because I didn’t want to watch my man/child TRIP mid-air over his own size 13 shoes and topple off the roof, bouncing on me on his way down thereby possibly knocking me out of my firm deathgrip. And partly because he had me laughing so hard making fun of me … that my belly muscles hurt! I just kept my eyes closed and tried to hold onto the flat, rough shingles.

I amused him enough – quite unintentionally, I might add – that he snapped a photo.  Thanks, James. I’ll forever have my fear encapsulated in a pixelated image.

We finally decided that I was … pretty useless on an incline …. suspended one story off the ground. James stepped back over me, scaled down the ladder like a monkey and coaxed me back down. It took me  …. QUITE a while to make my way back down to solid ground. But, I made it … without injury.

James is pretty handy.  His dad never really included him on projects so the things he’s learned, he’s had to figure by trial and error. It’s not the quickest way to learn, but many people have great knowledge from this style of instruction. He’s a pretty smart fella and will google …. anything! I am amazed what he’s able to do when he sets his mind to a job.

After being given the gift of shingles and some tar paper, James finally made himself get up on the roof last week and take care of that hole for me.

This is one more item that I can add to my Victory List! whoohoo!

So, this marvelous Monday morning
my happy, healthy, un-holey roof makes me happy
and my wonderful son that repaired it.

James Makes Me Happy this Monday morning.
What brings YOU joy this first Monday in March?