Up on the rooftop, quick quick quick

First time on the roof today. Scoped out the gutters--there is debris in every run, some worse than others. Along the breezeway, the previous owners ran the cable TV line in the gutter.

I did not expect the carpet of dead needles on the west side of the garage roof, and generally, everywhere else. The chimney is very, very old. Dickensian old. No covers on the flues. The smell of diesel fuel ("heating oil," to use the industry's euphemism) wafts from one uncovered flue; warm, expensively heated air from the other. Good news--the flashing around the chimney is fairly new.

Looking east from the garage. Line on the right is the advanced cable TV distribution network installed by the previous owner.

Looking west from the main house. Breezeway ridge is about an inch below the garage ridge.

View from second floor bedroom into Carkeek Park

Chimney and neighbor to the east

Dickensian chimney. Ow, guvnor, it needs a good sweepin's all.

It was hard to figure out this little detail from the ground

John Lasswell says we need a rain cover. Roger that. He says they're called "spark arrestors" in dry California. Near flue vents the oil furnace; far flue is the damper-less living room fireplace.

Just a few needles. How does one clean them off without removing the granules from the asphalt shingles?