Speechless
I was sitting outside writing yesterday when I was rudely interrupted by a huge thunderstorm. I went inside and looked out the front window to see one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen (and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of weird things).
I was just going to write a post about it, but thought no one would believe me so the proof is in the pictures. Because this week’s WP challenge is image vs text I think these pictures speak for themselves.
Remember – this is a thunderstorm and there was a lot of lightning! Yes – that is a steel pole he’s holding on a tin roof…
It’s obviously not dangerous enough so how about we add a bit of soap to that?
How about I get the hose up there and wash away the soap?
This strange exercise lasted for about two hours – I was stunned but couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene. I’m still wondering how he wasn’t struck by lightning and avoided taking off on the ‘slip and slide’ he’d created.
Have you seen anything this weird lately?
Dianne Gray author 
That guy is nuts!
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It took me a while to pick my jaw up from the ground! And he’s certainly not a ‘young’ man!
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A Darwin Award contender if ever I’ve seen one!
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Now I know where they come from! 😀
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My thought exactly, Amanda. 🙂
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Darwin Award nominee indeed, and damned lucky.
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He should buy himself a lottery ticket 😉
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Absolutely, he should.
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That dude is bonkers! I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is?
I saw an overweight woman dressed in skin tight,multi-colored neon leggings (seriously, it looked like a bag of confetti exploded on her pants and stuck), equally binding florescent blue and pink tank top, florescent gold shoes and bling on her teeth. Does that count as weird?
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LOL – that definitely counts as weird! I absolutely love “a bag of confetti exploded on her pants and stuck” 😀
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He’s the one laughing with his lovely clean tin roof.
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I’ve never seen such a clean roof! 😉
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I’m going to have think long and hard to see if I have seen anything weirder. Hmm probably, But dumber? nope. He wins the prize! 😉
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LOL! I almost set up the video camera, but I was so sure he’d been struck by lightning that I didn’t want to film it! 😯
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oh my, no, I would hate to film someone getting struck by lightening. But really, the man is ….well playing with mother nature is never a good idea
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I agree with him being a candidate for Darwin award!
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Me too! There were about ten OH&S laws that he defied completely and survived 😯
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So what I want to know is was he already up there washing his roof down or the moment the rain started did he think ‘about darn time, now I can get on with the scrubbing!’, grab his pole and suds and scamper on up there like a squirrel on Nutella?
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I didn’t see him before the storm started so I’m assuming he used it to do some daredevil act that defies description!
“Squirrel on Nutella” – LOL Love it! 😀
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He was washing his roof? Is he a nut?
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Yes – he was washing his roof. Who does that (whether or not there is a thunderstorm raging!) I’ll have to check mine now to make sure it’s clean enough for the street 😯
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I see someone already mentioned the Darwin Awards. Or start your own Blog Award–See it to Believe it. It’ll go viral.
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LOL! I could start my own blog awards because I’m so incredibly clumsy. But there’s no way I’d be climbing a (metal) ladder, holding a (metal) pole, standing on a (slippery tin) roof in clear weather – let alone during a thunderstorm! 😀
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Ok – you win Super Weird of 2013 THUS FAR…of course we don’t know what this guy will do next…and it’s only February…Geez Louise. Are you friggin’ kiddin’ me? I wouldn’t have believed it if you didn’t show pictures!! It’s a world gone mad, Gil.
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Mad indeed. I had to rub my eyes a few times because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I don’t know how he’s still alive! I got vertigo just watching him 😯
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Guess he must have 8 more lives than the rest of us!
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He must indeed, Carrie. I remember during the fires a few years back the hospital was filled with middle aged men who had fallen trying to clear the leaves out of their gutters – but this guy takes the cake!
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You win! Were you tempted to go point out the dangers? I can see myself now, thunderstorm wandering over in an idle, just passing chit chat sort of way 🙂
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I really wanted to ask him what kind of shoes he was wearing because I couldn’t believe he didn’t slip. But I was holding the phone the entire time in preparation to call the ambulance! 😉
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P.s he didn’t need the hose 🙂
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That makes it even weirder!
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Bravery and stupidity dances a fine line.
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So very true! 😀
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Maybe he had suction cup shoes. 🙂
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That’s what I was thinking, Janna. He must have because he was walking on soapy bubbles – either that, or he’s Spiderman 😀
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Can’t come up with a good one for the pole, though…
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I didn’t get a picture of him climbing the metal ladder onto the roof either 😯
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Holy Coprolite, Batgirl! That guys is cruising for a bruising . . . or worse. 😀
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LOL!!!!! I love it 😀 I’m still shocked that he didn’t actually fall or get struck by lightning!
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He’s a tidy gent, isn’t he? This one beats me, my neighbors are always amazed that I’ll wash the car in a rainstorm. Uses available water–seems normal to me.
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That I can understand – but he actually took the hose up on the roof and hosed it down while it was still raining LOL! You’re very good (and eco friendly) washing your car in the rain – please don’t wash the roof 🙂
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Could that be the “Worlds Worst Salesman?” 🙂 And I thought my neighborbor who always washes his car in the pouring rain was crazy! You better lock your doors. 🙂
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Maybe he should have employed the Worlds Worst Salesman to wash his roof! (check that – doors are locked) 😀
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There is obviously no limit to man’s stupidity!
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He does have a clean roof – although that’s only his boat shed, I wonder what his house looks like! 😯
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Maybe he had rubber soles and thought they’d offer protection … Some people also believe lightning strikes the highest object, in this case the trees, but it doesn’t. Oh, well, it takes all types and at least he has entertained us. 🙂
The only weird thing I’ve seen recently is one our neighbours lying down on her driveway talking on her mobile as our lawn was being mowed right near her. She continued talking there for a few hours …
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Janna suggested he may have been wearing suction cap shoes (that is a possibility if there is such a thing) but holding a metal pole in a thunderstorm is my idea of ‘weird’ and maybe a little freaky 😯
I can’t stand even being outside when the lawnmower is going (this fear comes from a neighbour when I was very young who ended up with a large nail embedded in her hip!) OUCH!!!!!
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I see weird all the time but just plain ordinary eccentric weird… This is a perfect example of stupid weird… Do you know if the man you photographed has a wife? If so, where was she? One of our country neighbours was on his shed roof, wearing things, during the Australia Day weekend storms, Fell off, smashed his wrist, had to have it set with metal plates and can’t work. You can imagine the ear bashing he got from his wife.
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He does have a wife, but she was nowhere to be seen. It’s often middle-aged men who have ‘roof-falling’ injuries (I read this in the paper after the bushfires) and this guy was definitely a statistic waiting to happen. Maybe this guy and your neighbour are related…
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OMG!!! That’s one crazy dude! You should go tell him you observed him doing this and ask if you can “interview” him as to why~!
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I would if I didn’t think he might want to make a suit from my skin 😯
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Do you know him?
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I know him as a very neat and tidy neighbour but that’s about it…
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Hmm…all I have to say is…hmm. : )
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That’s what I said when I picked my jaw up off the ground, Britt! LOL 😀
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Well, how about that?! Two speechless writers. Ooh, that’s a good title for something. : )
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I agree! It doesn’t happen often 😀
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Might be the only thing that saved him is the fact that his house is in a valley and not on top of the hill. That said— ain’ no way you gonna ketch me up on a roof like that! Slip ‘n Slide is right!
Had to laugh about “have you seen anything this weird” because “weird” is in the eyes of the beholder and what I might think quite normal I find a lot of people think weird. We bought this 90 yr old house that everyone thought we were nuts for buying — but everyone who comes inside loves it — It’s all about your personal vision I think.
That said — I have no idea what that guy’s personal vision was — other than fried grasshoppers on a skewer…. :-\
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I have no idea what his thought process was, Peter. All I know is that you wouldn’t catch me up on a slippery roof in a thunderstorm no matter how much I love the roof of my boatshed!
The house were moving is over 100 years old – so you’re certainly not as nuts as we are 😀
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haha what on Earth was he doing?? Clean the roof after the thunderstorm buddy.
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Absolutely, Jess! And I couldn’t believe he dragged his hose up there to ‘water it down’ as well! 😯
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Well, I guys gotta clean his car shed roof right? He needed the rainwater to wet, wash and rinse the roof top! Not the brightest but hey he’s still alive and it worked. Slick as snake snot. 🙂
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LOL! I’ll have to use “slick as snake snot” – what a great saying! 😀
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Possible things to do in a thunderstorm:
1)Stay in Bed
2) Watch a movie
3) Drink some hot tea
4) Scrub down the roof of the car park
Not too many people in America would pick option #4, Dianne. It must be a cultural thing. We don’t judge a person by the cleanliness of their roof. 🙂 Are you sure that your neighbor is not a woman named MacBeth?
Thanks for making me grateful for noting having to wash my roof. {{{Hugs}}} Kozo
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He has a very clean roof, Kozo – and it’s his boat shed (yes, he’s rich) 😉 Option #4 is the last one I’d choose as well (I think option #2 is my favourite!)
There’s another storm on its way today – I wonder what he’s got up his sleeve this time! 😀
{{{Hugs}}}
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Sadly Darwin only awards those who lose their life, or damage themselves badly enough so they can no longer contribute to the gene pool of the human race. This guy needs an award for being the luckiest man still alive. Thanks for the evening’s entertainment. My daughter and I were in hysterics reading and visualizing!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Suzan! It was a sight to behold (and one that put another chink in my faith in everything that’s sensible in the world!) 😉
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I used to think that common sense not being so common was a modern issue. Apparently the quote is attributed to Voltaire – 300+ years ago. I guess each generation has it’s own level of stupidity!
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we got hail here in chandler az, and ‘snow’ in glendale on the west side of phoenix and down in tucson. it was really strange to see all those little round pellets of ice in az.
mike
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WOW – what’s happening with the weather! Hail can be the worst because it could get so big where I used to live that it would smash car windscreens…
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Just when you think you’ve seen it all!
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My sentiments exactly, Denise!
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Really? A man washing his TIN roof with a mop (which apparently has a STEEL handle) and using soap (*insert sarcastic tone here* who slips on soaps these days?) all during a thunderstorm? Just great! Did that man go on and water his lawn next? Or maybe wash his car in the course of the thunderstorm? 😛 😀
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LOL – he actually did water his plants when he was finished cleaning the roof! 😀
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OMG only in Australia?? 😉 Why hose down the bloody roof when it’s raining ffs? Oh dear as a fellow Aussie I cringe right now! xx
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Some mothers do have ’em! 😉
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Hee-hee …. You know, Dianne, I used to do nutty things like this when I was young and ignorant to danger. I don’t know what it is about growing old that makes us more scared and conservative in the things we do. Sometimes I wish I had that blind, fearless energy I once had. God bless this guy, I love it! 🙂
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This is a really important point Maryanne! We’re so fearless when we’re young and this guy certainly doesn’t fit in the ‘young’ category which is all the more amazing 😀
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I reckon he must be a fair dinkum, true blue, born and bred Territorian, if you know what I mean? you know what we Queenslanders think of them??? 🙂 I love the lush, tropical backdrop
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I totally agree with you! Only an NTer would do something like this 😉
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🙂 Up there was the last area to be civilised.. Some think it still is a bit kooky, your neighbour proves a point… 🙂
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If he loves scrubbing a roof, maybe he’d do kitchen floors?
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Dang! I should have asked him and he could have done mine! 😀
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That’s what I call commitment:-)
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He has the cleanest boatshed roof I’ve ever seen! 😉
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What a kook! I am so glad you didn’t watch him get struck by lightning! The hose takes the cake though. Too funny, but so scary I can’t laugh.
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I was going to get the video camera out, but couldn’t bring myself to do it because I was so sure he was going to get struck and I would hate to film that! Very scary stuff 😯
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Humans are quite strange…. It makes no sense to me to do it in a torrential rain with Thunder… His angels must have worked overtime yesterday. 😆
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I can just imagine those angels now. ‘Quick – form circle to stop the lightning!’ Quick – stop his feet from touching those suds!’ They certainly would have been working overtime! 😀
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That is so true! Poor angels… 😆
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That guy is either crazy or extremely lucky! And how perfect that a writer/story teller was there to see it all! 🙂
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I couldn’t believe it, Bonnie and had to rub my eyes a few times and ask myself if he was for real! I think crazy and lucky some the entire thing up! 😉
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Crazy absolutely crazy…
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You said it, my friend! 😉
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What the…?! Crazy!
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Crazy – but very lucky indeed! 😀
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Sounds like he was pretty prepared with all those essential thunderstorm tools. He must have been waiting for that storm for a while. But you’d think just the thunderstorm would be enough to clean anything out there!
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It was very heavy rain and I’m surprised that in itself didn’t wash him of the roof! 😉
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Okay, I haven’t got anything that can top that! Maybe he’s an alien in disguise like in Men in Black?!
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Actually – now you come to mention it! LOL – I think you’re onto something here. I could probably write an entire story about him (and I still can’t figure out how he didn’t slip on those bubbles!) maybe he has those ‘suction cap’ alien feet…
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That’s hilarious/scary (and, even though I see stupid people everyday, I cannot top this one!) Go figure how he can tempt fate for two hours and live, but someone else can make a phone call during a storm and get struck.
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I was thinking – I’ll probably get struck standing at the window taking pictures! LOL! This particular scene confirmed my belief in ‘pure luck getting us through life’! 😀
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Wha…? Holy Toledo. A true crackpot! I have to say that is also an unfortunate choice of shirt colour. Makes him look an odd, naked shape while wearing a low-rise, pleated miniskirt. !!!
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HAAAAAAAAAAA! That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day! 😀
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And he’s your neighbour! Be afraid, be very afraid 😀
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Lock doors – check
Lock windows – check
Close blinds – check
Let dogs roam around freely – check
LOL 😀
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He’s obviously believes that saying, “cleanliness is next to godliness” and believes that he will have divine protection. 😆 Crazy is hardly the word for his stupidity. 😯
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That’s his boat shed – so I wonder how clean the roof on his house is! LOL 😀
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Yikes! He’s one anal person. 😀
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I have not seen anything that odd lately. Goodness gracious, that is some rain!
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When it rains here, Anna, it REALLY rains – sometimes you look out the window and can’t even see the road because the rain is so heavy 😯
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My friend wasn’t quite so lucky, when she decided the car needs a wash in the rainstorm that was brewing. Quickly she moved the car out of the garage onto the street. Unfortunately it wasn’t just rain, it was a full-blown hailstorm with ice pieces as large as eggs and the car was a total write off after the wash.
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OH NO! That really is a disaster! A lot of people like to wash there cars in the rain (as I’ve found out from the comments here) 😉
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Hey there! I love reading your posts and this was particularly entertaining and went good with my morning coffee. I’m releived this dedicated person didn’t end up amongst Darwin Awards winners.
Great job, agent 047, great job!
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LOL! Thank you so much, Christina! I’ve always wanted to be agent 047! 😆
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Boy oh boy, that is a strange sight. I can’t imagine what he was thinking! That rain is amazing; I can’t figure out how he didn’t fall off either.
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Tropical rain is like no other – it absolutely buckets down – and with all that soap on the roof…well, I din’t know how he didn’t slip off! 😯
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Well, what can I say, that man is practical to say the least! My mum used to do this to our windows when it was raining. She’d lean out of the window and scrub all the glass and let the rain do the washing. I was always there, gripping her leg to prevent her from falling and yelling at her to get back inside before she kills herself. =/
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LOL! I love it, Zen. If the guy hadn’t carried the hose onto the roof and hosed it down as well during the rain I may have thought he was half doing the right thing! 😆
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it’s important to keep it clean all day!
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No matter what the weather is like – it’ got to be clean (I have noticed it’s got a few leaves on it now) 😯
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Haha, that’s hilarious! How on Earth do you decide to wash a roof in the middle of a thunderstorm. I bet his logic was “If I was it now I don’t need to bring the hose up”, but still so silly 🙂
Ah, makes me nostalgic for those great big thunderstorms you get in Australia. There’s really nothing like those hot, dark, heavy tropical storms 🙂
Thanks for sharing Dianne, very funny!
Rohan.
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Thanks so much for commenting, Rohan! I absolutely love Australian thunderstorms as well 😀
The odd thing is, he DID bring the hose up 😆
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Yeah you said so in the post didn’t you, that’s just weird lol!
You have some interesting neighbors haha 🙂
Rohan.
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Talk about a great way to reveal character – the man who takes advantage of a rain storm to clean his shed! I remember when I was in Denmark, WA, because we weren’t on the mains and just had the water tank for our supply – when it rained I used to take an extra long shower no guilt. Loved this Dianne 😉 And thanks for the RT – gosh there’s so much ‘noise’ on twitter that it makes me smile that someone thinks to mention me!
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My pleasure with the RT, Gabriela! 😀
You’re right about revealing character – I think if this guy was a minor character in one of my stories I’d probably only need two lines to describe his personality perfectly! 😉
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That’s what I’m saying – when you only need the tiniest of brushstrokes. That’s when you know you’ve found a character. It’s why I like using life so much in my work – though sometimes I feel it’s cheating a bit, when I go out and see something and all I have to do is write it down, and people say wow, and I’m like: I didn’t really come up with it…
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Fabulous. Now all you need is a good soundtrack and you’re away 😉
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I was thinking maybe ‘Thunderstuck’ by AC/DC 😆
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Hmmm….I wonder if he’d come over to wash my car and outside of my house….it rains here a lot too.
And wonders….that looks like a garage of sort he is washing…why does he not pull the vehicle out and wash that at the same time.
Another thought…OMG….you should be glad he did not feel the need to take his shower!!!!
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It’s a boatshed, but he washes his boat every other day so it was probably already clean enough 😯
Oh – could you imagine the pics if he had decided to have a shower 😆 YIKES!!!
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Nods….even if you HAD taken pictures….I would advise you not to post them, as I am sure WordPress has some kind of policy against cruelty to readers haha.
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LOL!!!! Hilarious 😆
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That is hilarious! Yeah, I’d have watched that too.
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I was watching through my fingers, just waiting for something to happen! 😆
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This is really funny!!! What a character! Who can believe the amazing characters you have visit right outside your front door! I’m going to have to keep my eyes open. Maybe there are funnier people outside my door than I ever dreamed up in my head. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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I was so stunned when he got the ladder out and started up the roof during the thunderstorm that I just had to get my camera out, Marsha! What a classic! 😀
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It’s amazing that something awful didn’t happen to him. He has to make it to a story of yours, for sure. 🙂
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At least he was keeping you entertained Di.
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LOL! How lovely to see you here, Yvonne!!! How is the holiday going? 😀
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Holiday is going really well, only 5 days Togo, can’t wait to get home and sleep in my own bed and see you guys, we jhave really missed you.
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We miss you too! Can’t wait to see you guys 😀
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Your are so right in saying that was a strange sight, but my husband has done something almost as stupid. During a recent blizzard in our area, in the dark and with 50 mph winds, heavy snow fall, with at least several inches of heavy snow and ice mixed, he climbed on our roof to clean off our two satellites, one for my Internet and the other for the TV he was watching and if one time wasn’t bad enough, he did it twice. When they went out a third time he decided to go to bed.
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LOL! I love this – it sounds like something my hubby would do (only because he loves his tele viewing so much!) Crazy men 😀
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You were right to take photos, because people would be hard pressed to believe something so absurd without seeing the evidence for themselves. Goodness gracious! My stomach kept shrinking as I went through the images. Surely, he’s just gonna have to re-wash that after the storm?
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Ah – the beauty of the camera, it never lies! I couldn’t believe he was seriously injured or killed during this odd exercise! My stomach kept shrinking while I was watching him as well. I noticed a few leaves on his roof yesterday and wondered if he was going to get up there with a ‘leaf blower’ machine LOL 😀
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Never have I seen anything so ludicrous! Yikes!!
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Now there’s a man obsessed about a clean roof! 😉
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OMG… Maybe he has a death wish ???
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I’m not sure, Maggie – but he’s very OCD with the neatness of his garden. That was his boat shed roof he was cleaning so I’m now wondering what his house looks like! 😉
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There’s no way I could top that. If you guys have a lottery over there, he should have bought a ticket. I’m sure he’d be a millionaire. It was his lucky day.
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So true, Dennis! There are so many ways he could have been injured/killed that he really does need to buy a lottery ticket! 😀
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OMG – I guess he wanted a ‘power wash’ ??
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LOL! Very clever! 😆
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I’m awestruck Dianne, I would have watched too. Just waiting for the tragedy to unfold! Great post on the Why You Shouldn’t Do This! 🙂
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I don’t even like standing near the windows inside the house when there’s thunder and lightning! Yet – on a metal roof, metal rod and soapy water??? He should have bought himself a ticket in the lottery 😀
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No kidding! 🙂
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