Getting High

Dateline : Sunday, 8 February 2004

Getting High

OK, back to story telling mode -- let me do this comic book style, sort of --

Once upon a time there was this very naive dude named Sonny, who kept seeing paint flake from the ceiling more or less in straight lines across his study and in other rooms -- he thought it was due to a lack of primer -- it went on for 3-4 years

lines, and more lines -- flakes and always more flakes --

thick flakes of paint falling to the hard wood floor with a discrete thud --

he theorized, he assumed -- no primer -- seasonal difference in temperature and humidity --

and he just kept on going, happily doing his usual things --

until the night of 3 February 2004, when he crawled into bed on a dreary rainy night

and noticed that his pillow was wet -- he screamed at the cats, that incidently, had never wet anything before -- they hid under the bed!

he turned out the light and tried to fall asleep -- suddenly he felt something dripping on his head --

light back on, he looked at the ceiling -- it was dripping! A meteorite may have fallen on the roof? Dream on! So he moved the bed away from the wall, hoping that the ceiling would not fall on him as he slept, and put plastic trays under the leaks

the next day he called the roofer who put the new roof drain pipes on his place across the street a few weeks ago -- a couple days later he came over, put the trusty ladder up to the two story roof and went up to see what was wrong --

and Sonny amazed himself that he was also able to climb the ladder with his chronically bad hip, almost as easily as he used to a few years ago -- almost -- but he did it, with his Nikon CoolPix 950 in his jacket pocket! You can see the rubber-roofed garages one story below --

Incidently, the end of that chimney has to be topped with a metal thing to prevent water from entering

the day was frigid, and the wind chill made the temperature feel 15 degrees colder than it actually was

from up there he could see his other three-story town house across the street -- the place he used to live in and still loves -- he may move back there when he does some interior painting to restore it to the state it was in when Evelio also lived there -- he never noticed before that it was taller than the other buildings on the block

this is the corner down the street -- you can see the large empty lot across the street which has been mentioned several times in some of his stories -- some developer is said to be planning to construct an office building with apartments and shops, and the city is going to redo the sidewalks and lighting similar to that around the area near the multi-purpose Arena, three blocks away

but what he came up here to find out was what caused the roof to leak -- nothing should be leaking because he had the roofer, Nick, who always had contracts with the Trenton Public Schools, where Sonny also worked as a science teacher, to put a lifetime rubber roof on about 10 years ago -- it cost him a fortune, but he always personally liked to do things the best way possible, and have them done by someone else the same way when the job was unfamiliar to him

what he found shocked and amazed him -- Nick only did the back half of the roof! The front half was still the old asphalt that had been there for many, many years -- Sonny paid for the entire roof to be covered in rubber -- the leaks were due to the asphalt falling off of the brick walls in clumps on certain wide lengths of the roof -- naturally the rain water was able to get in and trickle through the rafters causing the nice straight lines of flaking paint he had been noticing for a couple years

one can readily see the wood at the roof edges, after the fallen asphalt was removed! -- naturally the water would get into the corner grooves and cause the interior ceiling paint to flake -- ordinary tar paper was the base of what is on there -- it is what they used in the old days, and is still the cheapest underlayer available

Antonio, the kewl dude who did the work across the street, is now putting a new rubber roof on the front half of this place -- he is from Costa Rica, so he and Sonny speak Spanish together -- it gives him a chance to practice because he usually only talks Spanish with his cats, and they never say anything in return, which does get a tad boring after a while, although he sometimes says he prefers talking to the cats rather than to some people he knows!

the new underlayer, which is basically only for the couple feet near the roof corners is a waterproof fibrous material, Tri*Ply #75 Base Sheet, made by GAF Industries

the actual rubber sheet material, Tri*Ply T4, is made by the same company, and is applied by flaming the lower surface with a butane thingy -- its lifetime is supposed to be on the order of 20 years

Sonny went back down the ladder to get the dudes some plastic bags and Coke (the Cola kind!)

when he went back up with the other camera, Kodak DC 3400 (it has more resolution = greater pixel capacity), after doing the first batch of pics, most of the flat part of the roof was done -- Toni is flaming the rolled rubber, each strip of which is overlapped onto the previous one

the roof edges on the side have been covered -- the brick walls remain to be done -- Sonny's shadow maks him look like a Yeti or something!

some of the old asphalt is already in bags, while a pile has yet to be bagged -- one can see the old rubber roof on the back of the building -- it was coated with something or other a couple years after it was laid -- notice the raised sections, bubble-like in various areas -- if done right, this should not occur

while up there, I thought it might be a good time to trim some of the overhanging branches of the maple tree beside the property to avoid falling leaves in the autumn, which might obstruct the drain, as it has in the past

they have been up there something like 4 hours, and should probably finish before it gets dark

ok, they left the ladder on the garage roof, so I guess they will be back tomorrow, Monday -- I think they had to fill one of their butane tanks

Toni still has to put a metal cap thingy on the exposed chimney, but he said it will not be in the store until Friday -- when he puts it on Sonny shall have his last chance to see the finished job -- problem is, he does not know if he will be able to climb the freekin ladder again! Today is Friday, 13 February, and he is still walking hunched over!

Sonny was able to get a slightly delayed payment for this major job -- half of the 2000 clams down, which totally wiped him out -- and the other half within 30 days -- meaning delaying utility and credit card payments for a month or two, which only adds to the cost of the job because each credit card charges $35 for the delay! And he doesn't even use the credit cards -- he's still paying for stuff he charged when he was working, and that was over 4+ years ago! Oh, well, life as usual for him.

He did ask me to say that any donations to the cause would be greatly appreciated! And, yes, he does accept PayPal! --

11 March 2004, Thursday -- the roof is finally done! Sonny once again climbed up to take a couple pics

the far end, front, of the roof as it now is -- notice the black strips on the fore, back end of the roof, which are covering cracks in the old rubber coating on that part of the roof

incidently, I just noticed that the camera pic dates are one day and 4 years behind!

Toni and his helper getting the chimney cap attached and sealing the top surrounds -- the large brick place in the right background is a glass repair company, the one I have used several times -- attached to it farther down the block is a sign company, which is always busy -- at the end of the street is the new shuttle train station from Newark, New Jersey which is not yet operational -- they have been running the shuttle between the main Trenton train station about 4 blocks away in test mode for weeks already

this view shows Hamilton Avenue, the cross street on the corner -- that long gray-ish roof is a warehouse/storage building Evelio and Sonny had when Evelio was alive -- it was sold to the Pakistani grocer in the building next to it before Evelio died, and he now uses it for his Halal meat area and freezer space

across Hamilton Avenue is Frank's new spacious and kewl addition to his liquor store and a new adjoining parking lot -- he believes that the entire local area will become renovated in the near future -- Sonny thinks it may still take another year or two, at least, but I can see some progress -- really slow progress, as usual for this capital city! Sonny has been waiting for it for 20+ years already!

another view of the finishing touches on the chimney cap -- the white building to the right was a well known Trenton printing company warehouse -- it was sold to some Black charity and they apparently stash their donations there before being distributed to somewhere else -- the tall buildings in the far upper background are either New Jersey State office buildings, down town commercial buildings or high rise, mostly so-called minority, housing units

Now Sonny has to start on the small patio/garden and the adjoining garages --

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	Once upon a time there was this very naive dude named Sonny, who kept seeing paint flake from the ceiling more or less in straight lines across his study and in other rooms -- he thought it was due to a lack of primer -- it went on for 3-4 years
	lines, and more lines -- flakes and always more flakes -- thick flakes of paint falling to the hard wood floor with a discrete thud -- he theorized, he assumed -- no primer -- seasonal difference in temperature and humidity -- and he just kept on going, happily doing his usual things -- until the night of 3 February 2004, when he crawled into bed on a dreary rainy night
	and noticed that his pillow was wet -- he screamed at the cats, that incidently, had never wet anything before -- they hid under the bed! he turned out the light and tried to fall asleep -- suddenly he felt something dripping on his head -- light back on, he looked at the ceiling -- it was dripping! A meteorite may have fallen on the roof? Dream on! So he moved the bed away from the wall, hoping that the ceiling would not fall on him as he slept, and put plastic trays under the leaks
	the next day he called the roofer who put the new roof drain pipes on his place across the street a few weeks ago -- a couple days later he came over, put the trusty ladder up to the two story roof and went up to see what was wrong -- and Sonny amazed himself that he was also able to climb the ladder with his chronically bad hip, almost as easily as he used to a few years ago -- almost -- but he did it, with his Nikon CoolPix 950 in his jacket pocket! You can see the rubber-roofed garages one story below -- Incidently, the end of that chimney has to be topped with a metal thing to prevent water from entering
	the day was frigid, and the wind chill made the temperature feel 15 degrees colder than it actually was from up there he could see his other three-story town house across the street -- the place he used to live in and still loves -- he may move back there when he does some interior painting to restore it to the state it was in when Evelio also lived there -- he never noticed before that it was taller than the other buildings on the block
	this is the corner down the street -- you can see the large empty lot across the street which has been mentioned several times in some of his stories -- some developer is said to be planning to construct an office building with apartments and shops, and the city is going to redo the sidewalks and lighting similar to that around the area near the multi-purpose Arena, three blocks away
	but what he came up here to find out was what caused the roof to leak -- nothing should be leaking because he had the roofer, Nick, who always had contracts with the Trenton Public Schools, where Sonny also worked as a science teacher, to put a lifetime rubber roof on about 10 years ago -- it cost him a fortune, but he always personally liked to do things the best way possible, and have them done by someone else the same way when the job was unfamiliar to him
	what he found shocked and amazed him -- Nick only did the back half of the roof! The front half was still the old asphalt that had been there for many, many years -- Sonny paid for the entire roof to be covered in rubber -- the leaks were due to the asphalt falling off of the brick walls in clumps on certain wide lengths of the roof -- naturally the rain water was able to get in and trickle through the rafters causing the nice straight lines of flaking paint he had been noticing for a couple years
	one can readily see the wood at the roof edges, after the fallen asphalt was removed! -- naturally the water would get into the corner grooves and cause the interior ceiling paint to flake -- ordinary tar paper was the base of what is on there -- it is what they used in the old days, and is still the cheapest underlayer available
	Antonio, the kewl dude who did the work across the street, is now putting a new rubber roof on the front half of this place -- he is from Costa Rica, so he and Sonny speak Spanish together -- it gives him a chance to practice because he usually only talks Spanish with his cats, and they never say anything in return, which does get a tad boring after a while, although he sometimes says he prefers talking to the cats rather than to some people he knows!
	*the new underlayer, which is basically only for the couple feet near the roof corners is a waterproof fibrous material, TriPly #75 Base Sheet, made by GAF Industries**
	the actual rubber sheet material, TriPly T4, is made by the same company, and is applied by flaming the lower surface with a butane thingy -- its lifetime is supposed to be on the order of 20 years Sonny went back down the ladder to get the dudes some plastic bags and Coke (the Cola kind!)*
	when he went back up with the other camera, Kodak DC 3400 (it has more resolution = greater pixel capacity), after doing the first batch of pics, most of the flat part of the roof was done -- Toni is flaming the rolled rubber, each strip of which is overlapped onto the previous one
	the roof edges on the side have been covered -- the brick walls remain to be done -- Sonny's shadow maks him look like a Yeti or something!
	some of the old asphalt is already in bags, while a pile has yet to be bagged -- one can see the old rubber roof on the back of the building -- it was coated with something or other a couple years after it was laid -- notice the raised sections, bubble-like in various areas -- if done right, this should not occur
	while up there, I thought it might be a good time to trim some of the overhanging branches of the maple tree beside the property to avoid falling leaves in the autumn, which might obstruct the drain, as it has in the past they have been up there something like 4 hours, and should probably finish before it gets dark ok, they left the ladder on the garage roof, so I guess they will be back tomorrow, Monday -- I think they had to fill one of their butane tanks

	the far end, front, of the roof as it now is -- notice the black strips on the fore, back end of the roof, which are covering cracks in the old rubber coating on that part of the roof incidently, I just noticed that the camera pic dates are one day and 4 years behind!
	Toni and his helper getting the chimney cap attached and sealing the top surrounds -- the large brick place in the right background is a glass repair company, the one I have used several times -- attached to it farther down the block is a sign company, which is always busy -- at the end of the street is the new shuttle train station from Newark, New Jersey which is not yet operational -- they have been running the shuttle between the main Trenton train station about 4 blocks away in test mode for weeks already
	this view shows Hamilton Avenue, the cross street on the corner -- that long gray-ish roof is a warehouse/storage building Evelio and Sonny had when Evelio was alive -- it was sold to the Pakistani grocer in the building next to it before Evelio died, and he now uses it for his Halal meat area and freezer space across Hamilton Avenue is Frank's new spacious and kewl addition to his liquor store and a new adjoining parking lot -- he believes that the entire local area will become renovated in the near future -- Sonny thinks it may still take another year or two, at least, but I can see some progress -- really slow progress, as usual for this capital city! Sonny has been waiting for it for 20+ years already!
	another view of the finishing touches on the chimney cap -- the white building to the right was a well known Trenton printing company warehouse -- it was sold to some Black charity and they apparently stash their donations there before being distributed to somewhere else -- the tall buildings in the far upper background are either New Jersey State office buildings, down town commercial buildings or high rise, mostly so-called minority, housing units