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flimsy technologies
Tuesday, September 14 2004
I continued working on gutters on the west side of the house today. I'm installing aluminum gutters, and I'm finding it sort of depressing. It's very difficult to put together a geometrically-perfect gutter using the flimsy technologies provided. The junctions between gutter segments are folded pieces of aluminum into which one inserts the segments' ends. But it's a weaker bond than one gets between Lego blocks and even with lots of caulking these joints inevitably leak. Attaching such chintzy structures to the house feels a little like building a dormer made of playing cards. It feels so temporary and futile. There's a huge difference in satisfaction between positioning something solid and tacking up something fragile.
Meanwhile, I haven't even figured out exactly what I'm going to do with the water these gutters collect. I have makeshift downspouts made of temporary piping, but attaching something more permanent in an æsthetically-acceptable manner is going to be a real challenge. And all this is happening while the trench remains open, waiting for various cement and mortar patches to dry out enough to accept a layer of asphalt paint. The yard is a mess, and on top of everything else the grass hasn't been mowed in something like two months. Just in terms of household chaos, I feel a little crazy from all the loose ends.
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