Today I was surprised around 8:15 in the morning when Sam, my editor, started barking for what I thought was no apparent reason. As I went into the bedroom to apologize to Mrs. Dada who was still asleep for Sam's strange behavior, I was surprised to see she was already awake and to hear her say, "Someone's on the roof!"
As I hurried to the front of the house to peer out a window, I was surprised to learn she was right! I had forgotten today was the day the roofing company promised to arrive when last I spoke to them three months ago.
It was a wonderful, mixed blessing. Wonderful because we were finally getting the roof we've been wanting ever since the El Paso floods of '06 from a local roofer with excellent reputation (and a six month waiting list, which I ruefully refused back in '06 and again in the spring of '07). Bad because I was sitting in my skivvies and robe still sipping on my first cup of coffee trying to get my eyes to focus on the computer monitor's overnight news.
Sam, after initial shock at the perturbance of his daily status quo, accepted all the disconcerting racket over our head's better than I. It's amazing to me how closely the removal of an old roof and installation of a new one sounds remarkably like how I would imagine the advancing sounds of insurgents/revolutionaries fighting U.S. and Canadian forces just inside our city limits might sound. This, of course, as a result of our over stretched military being unable to respond to natural emergencies inside our own United States, or--god forbid--to angry Americans trying to overthrow the present regime with no one to stop them. (You can read about the Civil Assistance Plan pact between the U.S. and Canada here...it didn't get much coverage in American MSM.)
Anyway, whether true or not, in deciding the color of shingles we wanted on the new roof, we opted for -- what else? -- "desert tan." Despite the warning of my gossipy neighbors that it will draw more heat into the house instead of the former white shingles that adorned our rooftop, I have a secret. It won't matter in the very near future what color our shingles are re energy conservation -- that's because there won't be any energy to be conserved!
But more on all of this later. In the meantime, know our darker, heat absorbing desert tan shingles will be working overtime in the global warming days that lie ahead for not only us and all Americans, but citizens globally as well! But the contrast with the white bricks of our house will look just great with the desert tan roof shingles as we swelter beneath 'em in our home sans airconditioning!
2 comments:
no, no, you were right to go with desert tan! It will serve you best summer AND winter. It's not dark enough to make that much difference in the summer & it will blend so much better than white. Some places in the SW have actually banned all that white because it's not a natural look. In fact, all those stark white mediterranean sunny hillside villas are archeologically incorrect. The ruins they are based on were originally brightly colored, but over time the color deteriorated and only the white lime wash remained.
Besides, if you want to keep the heat out of your attic, the addition of an attic fan will help a lot more than the difference between a white vs desert tan roof color. It can be cut directly into the roof while you're reroofing, or it can be installed up in the attic & vented out the gable or other attic vent. It can be thermostatically controlled to automatically come on when the attic reaches a certain temp, or you can manually flip an electric switch in the house to turn it on. They really work well. We installed two of them in our last desert home & saw a drop in our A/C bills.
hey, dada, didn't we decide there is a "b" somewhere in pfffth ??? Sam the Sham never figured out how to spell it either!
If you get LINK TV (it's up near the channel that shows Democracy Now!), there are some interesting things up for tonight, starting at 6PM MST. The Corporation (in 2 parts), then a special about Private Armies, then a follow-up to that No End In Sight documentary. I've set my recorder. Stop by my place to read more about them.
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