Raindrops falling on my face

It’s around 4:00 in the morning. I am awake. I awoke because I felt a drip on my face. I was puzzled. I felt another drop. I touched my pillow and it was damp. What the??? I got out of bed and turned on the light and saw water standing on my bedside cupboard. Oh.

 There is a stream of water pouring through the ceiling.

 I grabbed towels and spread them around on the cupboard, on my bed, on the floor. I put a dishpan on the cupboard. It is filling up fast.

I’m going to be up the rest of the night emptying the pan. It fills up about an inch every 10 minutes. As long as I’m up I might as well blog.

I hired some fellows last week to clean out the gutters and weather-strip the doors. I thought I was prepared for this storm. Darn. I’ll have to wait until 8:00 a.m. to call them and probably call a roofer.

Update 10:40 a.m.

The leak has stopped! My old friend, Tom Knorr, came to the house right after I called him this morning. He climbed up to the roof through a skylight. He found standing water (see my post from 2009 here). He took apart the drain coverings and the water rushed out the drain pipes. It was a waterfall. Within a half hour the drip in my bedroom stopped.

Tom and I used to work together at the island levee district. I am sure glad he was willing to come and help me out. There is more work to be done up on the roof, so he will come back and figure things out when it’s dry. Right now I have lots of towels in the dryer.

Helping with the balance of trade

There was gloomy news about the United States’ trade balance for last year. “Commerce Department data showed that the trade gap was $47.8 billion in November, exceeding analysts’ forecast of a $45 billion deficit,” according to the New York Times business page.

Well, I’m working very hard trying to reverse the trend. This January I’ve had more sales outside of the U.S. than usual. Last week I shipped patterns to: Kathleen in Kensington, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Juan Carlos in Barcelona, Spain; Janet in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada; Michelle in Arris, Ontario, Canada; and Beverley in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

It’s fun to think of my quilt patterns in their big yellow envelopes going to quilters all over the world.

Waiting for my muse

This new year is off to a slow start. I keep thinking, “Any minute now I’m going to get inspired and get busy.” I’ve just been mucking around and I don’t have much to blog about. I’ve been reading. I read my old journals from 1979 through 1999.

 Talk about a story with no plot! I have a complete log of the weather, details of house cleaning, gardening, and good meals that Robert cooked. There were some highlights, of course, but they are not for publication. If my children ever read them they might be surprised. The journals start with our arrival on the island and starting the Bethel Island Beacon weekly newspaper. They skip six years (because you don’t need a journal when you have a newspaper) and start up again in 1990 when we sold the newspaper and opened our bookstore, the Island Book Galley. After that, they cover my years at the island levee district and my excitement discovering quilting – page after page after page about quilting. They stop abruptly in March, 1999. It was really strange to read the journals all in one sitting.

I’ve also read some books: Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton, Threadbare by Monica Ferris, Alpine Vengeance and Alpine Winter by Mary Daheim, The Table Comes First by Adam Gopnik. I’m reading The Obamas by Jodi Kantor right now (about 1/3 of the way through and nothing exciting so far).

 I’ve cooked some delicious things.

And I’m finally binding the little quilt pad. My daughter-in-law Toni quilted the hearts way back in October. I’m feeling a little guilty.