So when a crashing boom alerts you to the fact that something seriously large has just had a violent meeting with your roof, it’s never a good sign. Especially when you realize that the seriously large object was a branch that fell vertically, impaling said roof and coming to rest sticking straight out of a gaping hole like a ship’s mast. Time to call some roofers… …who can come in a few days, or next week, or, in the case of one, in about a month and a half! Well that’s great. A giant window to the sky’s no big deal, right? After a brief debate, we decide not to pull the branch out(you’re supposed to wait for the doctor pull a knife out of a stab victim, right?), and craft some tin-foil-and-tape solutions to tide us over. Luckily, while our neighbor was admiring our home’s new flag pole that night, he mentioned that on the off-chance we didn’t already have somebody, he had a roofer who’d also done a bunch of other neighborhood houses. Long story short, we call up Dan, who says he can come by the next day(!!!), and sure enough he does. He was even early! After doing some investigating on his own, he took me up to show me exactly what all the damage was(turns out some bouncing or other parts of the branch that may have broken off had punctured some other holes we’d missed entirely, yay), went over a few different options for fixes and their prices, then headed to Home Depot to pick up what he needed for the job. The entire thing was fixed by evening, for $ 500(better than phone estimates we’d gotten from other people who didn’t even know about the additional holes), including taking care of the internal repairs, punctured metal flashing, and new slate. Anyhoo, Dan was great, seemed trustworthy and knowledgeable, comes with the recommendation of a number of homeowners on my street alone(whose roofs have already stood the test of time), and got the job done when we needed it. He does work all over the area, so if you need a roof repair or a whole new roof, give him a ring to see if he can make it out to you! Also, I really wish I’d taken a photo of the branch in our roof. Dang.