in the mountains

We have this little A-frame in the mountains . It’s a small place , but the roof is steep and high . Some of the roof shingles near the peak came loose a couple of months ago and I’ve been thinking ever since how to get it fixed . Maybe in my younger days I could have scrambled up that roof and nailed them up ; but now I’m a little beyond that . So I thought about what to do . Something had to be done before the entire roof slumped and slid down . Gravity , you know ! And wind , and rain , and snow ……….

I asked Dave , my neighbor . He didn’t know any roofers or anyone in the area who might do that kind of work . He told me to call Randy . Randy does lots of maintenance jobs in the area . Maybe Randy would do the repair ; at least he’d know someone who did that kind of work .

So I called Randy . No , he doesn’t do roofing and he doesn’t know anyone who does . No one on the mountain does it , he told me . I explained to him that the problem was the height . It’s an easy repair , but to get up to it is the problem . Randy said he could find for me a couple of roofers down the hill . He’d text me their names .

Ada and I came up to the cabin today . Nice weather . Dave’s friend Don was about to visit . Don’s got a cabin up here , too . He and Dave ride mountain bikes through the forest on Sundays . Dave has an air-conditioning company and does sheet metal work . I thought I’d ask Don if he had any suggestions for me to solve my roof problem .

” I’ve got a ladder long enough ,” he said . ” We need roofing nails , and a little caulking would help ,” he said .

” What we need is a guy young enough to go up there , ” I said .

” They wouldn’t do it ,” he said , ” They don’t want to work . I’ll go up there .” Don is seventy .

So he did . I , luckily , had the right nails and a hammer . I even had , as it turned out , a long enough ladder . Dave had the caulking . Don climbed up the ladder and did a masterful repair job . He mentioned that it wasn’t perfect . Three or four of the nail heads showed . He couldn’t hide them under the shingle flaps . I don’t care . To me it was perfect . Saved me a lot of anguish .

Best of all , no one got hurt . No hammer fell on anyone’s head . The ladder didn’t slip . Don didn’t fall from the ladder .

We , Don and Dave and I , shared a couple of beers later and had a pleasant conversation about life , and bears , and rattlesnakes , and Arizona , and airplanes . Ada joined us until the sun began to fade . Don said that he had to leave , that he hadn’t seen his cabin in two or three months . He had just stopped by to say hello to Dave .

I thanked him for the work . It saved me a lot of worry . It saved me a lot of money . Don brushed it off , said that’s what friends are for . ” We all look out for one another ,” he said .

That’s what I like about our little getaway up here on the mountain. Lots of people around here seem to have that attitude . It’s refreshing .