Most of the time, when people tell me after reading that I have a detail or two wrong, I claim artistic license, and let it stand. Very rarely do I offer a correction. Today is one of those rare occasions. Apparently yesterday, I used the personal pronoun "I" when I should have used "we." This morning, the man arched an eyebrow and said to me, "YOU carried all the long boards to the garage?" I paused a moment before answering, trying to remember the exact events of the day, and I conceded. I carried all the boards back from the garage, but he carried most of them to it. I don't want to diminish any of his contributions, so it's worth me making this clarification. You can't imagine what it's like living with someone with this sort of work ethic and stamina. I don't dare insult him. First and foremost, I would feel the loss if he got mad and left me to my own devices to do all of this work (as I did the last two summers while he was overseas, and I know I got overwhelmed), but somehow I imagine he could be creative in his revenge if I really pissed him off. So, to keep the hardest working man I've ever met happy, I say again, I didn't do all the lumber transportation yesterday. And I'm jealous of the way he showed he can carry four of them at once, when he moved a bunch around this afternoon. One long board at a time is my limit. I do a whole lot more walking than he does, to do the same amount of moving. And right now my feet feel every step.
Yesterday we had our first board casualties. One crushed longways along the grain, and another has to be replaced because it was a cut-out around a post, and the boards are all shifted over a fraction of an inch so the whole thing drains properly. The person who built the deck made a lot of poor decisions, not the least of which was to put the boards too close together, so that in the Low Country humidity, they swelled and were too tight to let sand and dog hair filter through the spaces. As of today, we've got three new boards to try to match in to the weathered boards. I think I can make them blend well, but I remind myself that a little variation in a wood floor is desirable. Every step of the way, I'm feeling better about getting talked into this project.
Now, is it worth me trying to stain some boards before I go to bed? I hate to say it, but probably. I took the afternoon off while it rained like crazy, and now I've let myself get behind my target. Perhaps that was unwise.
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