hole in the bucket

WARNING: Suggestions of lowbrow, 2-year-old humor ahead. Which aren't the point of the story, anyway.

Last night, I'm lying in bed with Lizzy at about 10:15, trying to talk her into going to sleep so I can, when she says, "Who's got gas?" I said, "Not me! Is it Lizzy?" and she said, "No!" Then I realize that, actually, I DO hear a strange noise... But it's more of a, oh NO!, dripping. Rather constant. I get up and check out the window area, where I (or someone) mistakenly left the top part of the window open a couple days ago. The window's closed. So the water that's dripping across the top of the window shade and down must be from the ...

roof.

We had an incident two weekends ago when Rita or whomever it was blew through. Chicks, man! They're nothin' but trouble! But we thought, well, rain THAT hard for THAT long is bound to find a way into your home. (we've turned into simultaneously the most optimistic, and the most fearful, people since owning a home. I hate owning stuff. Seriously; no joke there.) So we blew off the fact that there's now a brown stain the size of a fuzzy caterpillar on steroids on Lizzy's ceiling.
Last night showed that we have a serious problem. So Matt and I, at about 10:30, were flying about, trying to find a piece of easily moved furniture that would be tall enough and sturdy enough for us to stand on and get a good look at what's going on in the attic. Sure enough, those blasted solar panels that someone probably put on in 1976 or so are leaking around the posts. We think. The panels aren't in use, and probably haven't been for years and years; we've been scared off by rumors of how much they cost to remove. Not exactly a priority, until now.

I was glad to see all the rain last night, because Lizzy's pumpkin patch field trip is canceled and I no longer have to a) go on it, and feel guilty about missing work while I'm supposed to be 'in charge' while my boss is away for a couple days, or b) go to work and feel guilty that I'm missing one of Lizzy's field trips.
So now I'm in the office, spending work time, er, blogging, but also calling roofers. Dangit.