A windfall for the tree companies
News ·Sunday December 17, 2006 @ 22:00 EST (link)
December 16: We called several tree services from the hotel, and eventually Alpine Tree Service agreed to come out; we met them at the house at 1030. They climbed onto the roof from the top deck and removed brush and cut off branches (which they threw into the driveway; good thing we got the cars out first) until they could get to the main trunk, which they sawed up until it could be removed with ropes. They covered the opening with a tarp that Honey picked up at the local hardware store, still leaving a side gap which I covered with a smaller tarp later. They left after the tree was out, without removing the brush (they're trying to maximize jobs while the getting's good), but it turns out that was a good thing as they were overcharging horribly and we later called them back and told them we'd have someone else take care of the brush removal.
We spent the night at the hotel again; the house still didn't have power, and heat leaching through the gaps rapidly, even with the door closed (and recall the bathroom door wouldn't close since the skylight was resting on it). Lisa was around so I drove the three of us to a nearby Fred Meyer, which was open despite being without main power, and we bought food and games. We played three games of Scrabble at the hotel (the second without using the bonus squares), and I won all of them.
December 17: We didn't do much today—I suppose you could say we rested. We'd been going over to Microsoft to make calls, and look on the net for power outage status etc. (at this point they were still predicting Friday or Saturday for power restoration in Duvall). We left a message for James "Andy" Andrews at MetLife, whom we'd been told was our adjuster (turns out he wasn't, they farmed it out to another company, but now he is again).
We spent the night at the hotel again; the house still didn't have power, and heat leaching through the gaps rapidly, even with the door closed (and recall the bathroom door wouldn't close since the skylight was resting on it). Lisa was around so I drove the three of us to a nearby Fred Meyer, which was open despite being without main power, and we bought food and games. We played three games of Scrabble at the hotel (the second without using the bonus squares), and I won all of them.