Necessity, the Mother of Invention

Necessity, the Mother of Invention....

Sept. 15th  -- The torrential rains have continued now for over 5 days.  I can't believe how fortunate it is that the roof was completed before these rains!  The rain is not only constant but often comes down in sheets, as show in the view of the street in the front of my house. 

There was a break in the rain yesterday, are there are now new water features around the house, as shown by this mini stream flowing around the lumber in the back yard.

Because of the rain, there has been no new work on the house for the last two working days of the week, although the mason came by to see how he will need to remove the dining room windows in order to install the new doors that will eventually lead to the pergola-covered deck on the south side of the house.  The doors are here waiting for the mason who is waiting for the rains to stop.

In the meantime, here is a photo of the rains cascading off the roof as I look down to the south from the covered deck off the master bedroom -- that deck, by the way, is beyond water-tight!

On the south side of the house, there was a mini-moat around the new rear-mudroom entry (of which that photo above shows the roof).  The water cascading off the roof has to go somewhere, and after I got tired of walking through the mud, I used scrap lumber to construct a little walkway, as shown here:

As Plato said, necessity is the mother of invention, and it has been an interesting exercise to meet the challenges of living among the ruins.  This walkway is one example, and there are countless others when faced when living in a house with no kitchen, no running water on the first floor, no currently habitable room that will hold even a twin-sized bed, and countless other reminders or how convenient modern living is.  I think how fortunate I am and how minor my inconveniences are while so many others are dealing with the devastation of the floods that these rains have brought.





As the weather turns cooler, I'll need to ratchet up my cooking and diet a bit.  The warm weather made it easy to "cook" with a diet of mainly fresh veggies and salads.  After the two-time refrigerator debacle, I keep very little food on hand.  So cooking is another interesting challenge that will require some creative solutions.   I have a microwave (that is on its last legs) and a refrigerator, which now has all sorts of menacing signs that threaten ill-will to anyone who even thinks about pulling the power cord from the outlet.  

This morning's challenge was making a warm breakfast.  Sure, oatmeal would be easy enough, but with Plato's words ringing in my ears I decided I needed another challenge -- here is my first attempt at scrambled eggs in the microwave.  The eggs were pretty tasty and warm...I am also thinking that there has to be other microwave dishes...stay tuned for a report on microwave quiche!