Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I just finished my last week of furlough No. 4 from my job, which started back in April. Each week that I was forced off, I picked a major project to do. During the first three weeks, I have painted both of the small bedrooms, the hallway and kitchen, then the master bedroom. Obviously, painting has been my main theme so far, and to finish up I decided to also paint my deck.No surprise here! I have a rather large deck, probably about 30 x 50, so that is a lot of painting, but I cut it down a bit by allowing the deck to just weather naturally. It is made out of pressed wood, and paint will not really adhere to it. After a few years, it will just start peeling off. So, that just leaves the railing, which sounds like a lot less work, but not really. Now I have almost of 90 feet of railing to paint…and each six-foot section has 12 slats made of one-inch square boards, and there is no easy way to paint them. I thought about a sprayer, but I was not sure how to do that and not get it all over the deck or on the house. So I bought three gallons of heavy pigment deck paint and cut a big cardboard box down one side so it would slide in between post, and served as a nice protection from paint dripping onto the deck. Grabbed a one-and-a-half-inch brush and went at it. The paint was very thick, so I was constantly brushing on a few strokes and then bending over to get another big dab of paint and cover a few more feet of the slats. After a while I really started to feel like the Karate Kid. brush stroke up, brush stroke down, bend down and repeat. What was really frustrating that after doing all 12 slats of a six-foot section, I would think…. whew…one section done. Then I came to the realization, that I had to go around to the other side and start over again. Sigh! I was really tired and sore after two days of painting. But it looks good, which is important. I almost had a big paint accident. I was on my third can of paint, and since it had just been recently mixed at the store, I normally turn the can upside down to let the paint mix before I opened it up. I always put down some plastic just as a precaution, and in all my years I have never had a problem, but this time the lid was set properly, and paint started to come out. Fortunately, I caught it before much leaked out and the plastic caught the rest. Thank goodness. There is no easy way to clean paint off of grass. Again, maybe I would just paint the grass, and no one would notice? LOL.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Life is a great big canvas, so throw all the paint you can on it.” Danny Kaye
SMILE
As soon as I stepped into the urgent-care facility in my hometown, I could see the place was packed with patients. The nurses and doctors all seemed frazzled. I discovered just how frazzled when a doctor walked into the room, pulled out his examination light, pointed it in my ear, and instructed me, “Say, ‘Ah.’”
That is all I have for today. As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember, wax on and wax off might come in handy these days.
JR
