For a lot of the past week, I have been painting a house (at least from the inside) and rehabbing the bathroom. It was clearly a labor of love as there wasn't any pay involved. With that said, it was as much work cleaning up the mess we made as it was painting. Thank god there is new carpet coming next week. I guess when you hire free and young help you get what you pay for. I tried to do my best to not be directive in the efforts and that for me, was probably as much work as the painting. We did turn a chocolate brown cave into a nice lite airy space. There should be a color chart at the paint store that tells you if you are color challenged, Once you cross over the line from tan to chocolate the machine should disallow you from being in charge of the color. Especially if the carpet is blue and selected by a person equally color blind. I will say blind here because there was just no excuse in that color combination.
There are a few things I will go over and help fix a little later on this week. Somehow a leak under the kitchen sink just destroyed the particle board and the floor of the cabinet is sitting on the floor and not holding anything together. I will try to build a 2X4 shelf support and use some plywood that might make it past the first time the sink leaks. Did I mention that I might also change the kitchen faucet. Dang, it is an no ending challenge to rehab old kitchens. At least the 40 year old kitchens had real backbones behind the veneer of paint. Any thing newer than that is particle board and anyone that thinks it will last through the first dunking of a leak is just fooling themselves. I think the engineers would have tried to use a waterproof glue in their design. Nope, Particle board is good for a small fire in the fireplace and only that.
Barb went to the local farmer's market and found that they have locally produced cantaloupe's from over by Atchison. It was the best we have had this year. We haven't reached the production level for tomatoes yet but soon we will have them rolling in. If you can find anything better than a BLT and a side of cantaloupe, you let me know. I grill a great steak but fresh home grown tomatoes with bacon is more than anyone should imagine. Did I mention that I also love watermelon? I think mango's are pretty good too, but I do wish they could change the shape to eliminate that cuttlefish shaped seed out of the middle.
I am going to spend an hour or two today looking for a bucket of tools that is probably sitting right where I left them. I have tried various methods of organization in my hand tools and thought I had finally found a method that works. There is a 5 gallon bucket that is just about the right amount of tools to fix about any project and a canvas organizer that helps keep the contents sorted. I had one for carpentry and one for plumbing. I can find the plumbing bucket but the other is Missing in action (MIA) You will know I have found it when you hear the slapping of my forehead with my right hand, followed by the words, "Duh Dennis." My really big hope is that I didn't leave it outside somewhere and find it with about a foot of water in it. I did that with my Dad's tool box one time and he tried to lock the shed so it wouldn't happen again. He put the latch on wrong and I found that with a screw driver I could just unscrew the latch and get inside the shed. That worked until I forgot to screw the latch back on he came home and found his tools outside again. After that, he put a padlock on it and then "hid" the key. That was much easier to find than unscrewing the latch. After that I did try to remember to have the lock closed but the time Dad got home.
As a member of the "Baby Boomer" bunch, many of my classmates are busy loosing their parents. In fact, many have long since become an adult orphan. The fact we no longer have Moms and Dads to provide guidance doesn't mean we don't need them. I would give about any amount of money to hear my dad say, "Who invented this shit" in reply to the report that we are sending millions of dollars to some country to arm one side of a rebellion or another. He would shout that advisors was just the start of that war in Vietnam and what good has that done us? I don't understand who or why the Iraqi soldiers can just throw down their weapons and give up with the knowledge that the enemy takes no prisoners. I just wonder at what time they will get smarter and begin to think that getting killed to protect your country is better than getting killed because they give up?
Oh well, I have just about emptied my brain housing group and hear my name being mentioned in the part of the list of people that need to get up off my butt and do a little house cleaning. Mel, Zander and the three dogs will be here tomorrow and you know those dogs have high standards. I want them to be able to eat dropped food off a clean floor. Wouldn't want them to get sick.
MUD
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