Well, the camera (30D) arrived yesterday.  Today, I am out of my studio.  We finally got a warm couple of days here in northern Colorado and the snow on my roof has started to melt--and run down my pipes inside the house.  Apparently, the ice dam that formed at the corner of my roof over the kitchen caused the melt water to back up under the shingles.  Now, the roof is soaked and the water is taking the path of least resistance--to my basement. 

The basement is the home of my printers and lights and studio (such as it is . . .). 

I have two buckets under the drips.  They're big buckets, but no electricity will be allowed in this room until the drips stop.

Life just kicks you in the pants sometimes.

Life's a bitch ain't it.  Today, I put on my shorts to go to the beach and the temperature dropped to 70 degrees and I shivered so much I couldn't hold the camera steady  enough to take pics of the bikini babes playing vollyball. 

God! I hate winter!!!

We're having a weird summer down here in NZ, a couple of days of 30 (C) heat, then rain, and 10 degrees for a day..

I went out this morning to cover a bike race which was running from the plains up into the southern alps..   Light drizzel and quite cold on the flat, got over the first pass in the mountains and I had to shed two layers of clothes, and put suncream on.

Oh, and yea, that serves you right for braggin! :-).

Well, that's the stupid thing--we do have a roof rake.  We just didn't use it.  We were so caught up in the fun and beauty of the blizzard in December that we didn't clear the roof.

Serves us right.  Still, I hate to see the water damage.

Do you remove the snow from the edge of your roof or is it too high? You can get a special shovel at the hardware store to do this or put on "heat lines" along the edge to avoid this.

This happened in my bathroom two days after I re-decorated and ruined the one corner so we got heat lines now is spots.

Hope it stops soon! Poop!

Snow?  What's snow?

Regards,
Adelaide
(from 35�C Rio de Janeiro)

PS: ProfessorGB, I'm sorry about what happened and I hope damage won't be too costly.

My roof started leaking recently and I agree it is a complete drag. Slow drip from my bay window in the dining room. I cringe everytime a drop hits the bucket. After all the freak wind storms (and some snow) we have finally have some relief. Today is beautiful and hubby will finally tackle the problem.

Good luck.

Hmm.  I guess I should post a picture of our snow.  Here's a snap (sorry for the quality):

Is that cake icing? 

Regards,
Adelaide

so what does snow actually look like.

i am saving up for a trip so i might actually see the stuff for the first time in my life.

now, if you want to know about beaches, deserts, hot and humid rainforests ... well, that is my life.

Well, the saga goes on.  If I didn't have a cold and didn't feel awful, I'd probably be laughing my butt off.

The furnace died.  Last week, it started doing something odd:  It would come on and the fan would run and run without stopping.  There wasn't any heat coming out of the vents, because no gas was burning.  We turned the system off and then on, and tadah it came back to life.  We then had the furnace serviced and it ran fine for a few days.

Tonight, the blower came on as usual--but no warm air.  Just lots of cold (63 F, 17 C) air.  Now, I knew it was the thermostat.  I ran to the store and bought a new one--but when I took the old one out, forgot to note which wires went where.  For the second time in two months, my neighbor came over and he helped me straighten it all out.  This man is a saint.

All is back to being warm and toasty.  No frozen pipes, no shivering children.  It's a good thing, too; this is supposed to be the coldest night of the year (-10 F, -23 C).  Even the dog was worried.

But, the basement is dry and has been for several days.  I think we fixed the ice dam problem.