A few minutes after I posted my last entry, the lights blinked and then came right back on. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that Diane had just put a loaf of bread into the breadmaker — but since we’d just begun the cycle, we thought it would be OK to restart it. Which we did. But then when the lights blinked again, Diane decided that it would be safer to take the dough out, knead it by hand, and let it rise on its own, to be baked later. So she did, and then we left for the JCC.
When we returned about noon, all was well; Jeff said that the power had stayed on while we were gone, and he was finished with his homework. That was a good thing, because the lights started flickering again almost immediately. And then the winds really picked up, and we heard a very loud vibrating, buzzing noise. After a few minutes, it died down, and we went to shower.
The lights went out yet again right after I got out of the shower; this time, they stayed out. After a while, I called PG&E’s outage number to see if they knew anything; the system claimed that our outage had been reported at 9am. So I decided the odds were against the power returning any time soon, and we got in the car to go to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch (since they use a wood-burning stove, I thought there’d be a good chance we could actually get a hot meal there).
But as we backed out of the driveway, I noticed something funny about our roof. A small section at the peak had blown away (which explained the noise). There wasn’t anything I could do about the problem at the moment, so we continued on to lunch. The mall had power, food, and even covered parking, so that was probably a good decision.
When we returned, we still had no power. But the rain had stopped, and the wind had died down, which was good. I called the insurance company to see if they could recommend a roofer, but the 24-hour “Good Neighbor” service desk couldn’t. So I found an issue of Bay Area Consumers Checkbook which talked about roofers and tried to call a couple of the high-rated ones. Needless to say, I got answering machines.
Then there was a knock at the door; it was our next-door neighbor, telling us that she’d seen the shingles on our roof flapping in the wind earlier in the afternoon. We told her that we knew — but later, I figured out that she was talking about shingles other than the ones which had blown off. Oy!
A few hours later, power returned, and our moods brightened along with the lights. We still have a hole in the roof, but maybe we’ll get some more calls returned tomorrow (one roofer did call, and said that he could get a crew to us today if absolutely necessary, but that he’d have to charge us triple-time — he suggested waiting if water wasn’t pouring into the house, which it isn’t).
Jeff’s school starts up tomorrow, but Diane and I have the day off. Since we have to get up early to take him to the JCC, we’re pretty sure we’ll get our exercising in early in the day; after that, who knows?
Try Conrad Roofing in San Jose, at (408) 294-7615. They did my roof and a neighbor’s, and did an excellent job on each. The guy I worked with is Keith Carnahan; I think he owns the outfit.
Thanks! They got a good review in Consumers’ Checkbook, too; they don’t seem to have an answering machine up and running at the moment, but I’ll try them tomorrow.