Monday, August 07, 2006
Sweatin' And A-scratchin'
Ah, the joys of home repair! It has become an obsession. I passed up a beautiful, hot sunny weekend of fishing, playing in the ocean, hanging with friends, shooting pool in a nice air conditioned building, all to work on that damn WALL.
Insulating wall interiors, measuring and cutting wallboard, repairing sections of exposed ceiling, swearing at the short-lived batteries in my electric screwdriver, swearing at myself when a cut is off and I have to figure out how to compensate, swearing at the cat when I run out of wood screws (The cat, happily, stares at me briefly, yawns and goes back to sleep. She's heard it all before), swearing at my sweat-soaked shirt and back support belt. I actually get tired of swearing. That's rough.
Interspersed with the Never-Ending Wall are the necessities of everyday life. Food, laundry (I keep dish towels around to wipe the sweat running off my arms. Pouring sweat directly from my body into plugged-in power tools seems like a very bad idea. I go through about 2 of those towels a day), making other parts of my house more presentable. I have to feed my online addiction at least a little every day. I have to remind myself NOT to spend too much time sitting, or I'll fall asleep and miss optimum time for parts of my ongoing house cleanup.
I have to keep in mind that it IS hurricane season here, even if our first big one got itself all fired up then crapped out two days later, sending us some rain and cooling wind as it died. That means I could be restricted to two or three days of covering things with tarps, tying things down with ropes, putting things in places where wind won't send them flying out of my yard for points unknown. Of course, that also means making sure I have plenty of bottled water on hand, lots of charcoal and lighter fluid for the grill, plenty of gasoline for the generator, a variety of batteries, plenty of food, just all KINDS of goodies. I discovered, back when I was taking care of my Dad, that you can get those 12-hour light sticks, and when the power is out, save wear and tear on the generator by leaving a trail of them from, say, the bedroom to the bathroom, the hall to wherever I was sleeping in case he needed me for something.
Well, I best get back to it. Wall won't finish itself.
Kevin
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