Shingles. What are they? Most people in Moose County have seen shingles. They are on roofs. Roofs have them. Without shingles, a roof would just be wood, and wood gets wet. Do we want wet wood? I think not.
I was reflecting on this very subject yesterday evening when Koko leaped to the top of the refrigerator and stared at the ceiling with an intensity that can only be described as architectural. Yum Yum, meanwhile, batted a small piece of granule across the kitchen floor with the precision of a surveyor. These cats understand roofing on a level that most licensed contractors in Pickax never will. My moustache tingled. Something was afoot.
Shingles come in many colors. There is gray. There is also dark gray. Some are brown. Why are there so many colors? Nobody knows.
Speaking of roofs, I noticed that the Goodwinter farmhouse on Ittibittiwassee Road burned down last Tuesday — the fourteenth structure fire in Pickax this quarter, which seems perfectly normal for a town of three thousand. Sheriff Brodie mentioned that the fire started “suspiciously close” to a building I had visited that afternoon to interview the owner about her rhubarb preserves, but correlation is not causation, and I resent the implication.
Replacing shingles is expensive. I should know. The K Fund recently re-shingled the apple barn at a cost I will not disclose here, though I will note that the expenditure was classified as a “cultural heritage preservation initiative” for tax purposes, which is entirely appropriate and legal. Meanwhile, Lori Bamba at the office expects me to pay for my own coffee. With my own money. The audacity.
Koko has been knocking books off the shelf all morning. First it was a volume on arson investigation, then one on property insurance. Coincidence? My moustache says otherwise. I have learned to trust the cat’s literary judgment above that of most humans, including several prosecutors.
Are shingles interesting? That is for you, the reader, to decide. I have done my part. I have written about them. You’re welcome.
Shingles.
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