After a difficult May when I endured a whole bunch of house maladies that just broke me, I decided to finally invest in a new roof. My old one was slate, not really well-maintained. These are roofs which “last 100 years!” as so many people told me but mine was at least 120 and not looking great. More to the point, slate roofs are “old technology” and it’s harder and harder to find people to work on them. After calling, no shit, fifteen different people to get a leak fixed, I made a choice to move on.

I got some bids in May, signed a contract in June and after a few reasonable delays (my foreman got kidney stones!) the massive dumpster was delivered August 28th and the crew got to work on September 2nd. I went to Massachusetts to Kate’s for the duration because the crew nominally started at 7 am and I preferably start at 10 am. All of this to say that I forgot that the Virgo Month of Leisure was even a thing until today. Ha!

I had a nice time at Kate’s, and a very nice birthday on Friday. Drove home on Saturday with a blinking D light on my dashboard and a very sketchy-feeling transmission (when it rains it pours, also it was pouring!) and when I spotted the Hartford Green roof as I drove up the road to my house I nearly gasped. It’s lovely and so solid-seeming. And while it’s true that it makes the rest of my house look a little more shabby by comparison, I am fine with it. Today, I can relax. Tomorrow, maybe not so much.

The Virgo Month of Leisure is my own personal holiday to remind myself to take a freaking break once in a while. These annual blog posts always seem to be morning-after-quarterbackingly explaining why I need it. Yes, a whole month.

ETA: the car thing, based on diagnostic codes, shouldn’t be a disaster. I know for some people “Oh no car troubles!” can be a bigger deal so I wanted to clarify.