Siding Progress, Vacation and Good Bye to Old Friends

Starting the Shingling on the Back

 

Lunch Time Break - Progress!

 

Another View

End of Day - Back of the House Completed

 

Next Day and the North Side is Completed!

 

Trusty Old Friends

The siding is going up rapidly with the back and north sides completed. I’m a bit concerned about the color as we were originally looking for more of the grayer Nantucket look. However, apparently the shingles are no longer available in Misty Gray so we went with the Weathering Oil which appears to be more brown than gray. Hopefully it will give it the gray look that we want.

 

I’m on vacation for the next two weeks. I warned the builder. I won’t be surprised to see a security fence going up soon.

 

In life we’re given many paths. Some we take by choice others are just put in front of us without any options for a left or right so we just move straight ahead. And helping us carry our baggage down those paths is our bag of tools. Including a good pair of shoes.

 

I had such a pair. A pair of Merrell Hiking shoes. They were about fifteen years old. I used them more for working around the house then hiking. But I wore them carrying my kids around in the wheelbarrow as they were growing up when I was working on my first house. I wore them when I climbed a 5,000 footer in New Hampshire by myself like a monk seeking solace at the top of a mountain where I accepted the fact that my marriage to my children’s mother was over. I wore them at my second house which was my bachelor pad as I rehabbed it and constructed a retaining wall and dug and moved more dirt than I want to fondly remember. And I wore them so many years later as I worked on my new house with my new bride as we start our life together.

 

I’ve dug, shoveled snow, walked in mud, climbed roofs, cut grass, sawn wood, hiked and enjoyed life in them. And they were really showing the wear and tear of life, but they were still going  strong. Until recently.

 

My left shoe developed a half dollar size tear in the tread right under the ball of my foot, but being the good thrifty New England Yankee that I am I thought, heck, they’re still good. I’ll just stay out of puddles.

 

So there I was moving a hydrangea from a house that I found on Craigslist (another blog to come) that was re-landscaping. I was jumping with both feet on the shovel to get some depth and cut through the roots, sort of like jumping on a pogo stick. Well, anyone who has ever done this would know that your time on the shovel is only momentary and you have to jump off or else you’ll fall over. Wouldn’t you know it as I was jumping off, that little half dollar size tear caught on the top of the shovel blade. My arms went up in the air flailing away as I lost my balance and then before I knew it I was rapidly stumbling backwards in a herky jerky sort of way with my arms wildly wind milling trying to grab at anything to keep from falling. Four backwards steps later I went ass over tea kettle and landed with a thud on my butt about ten feet from the plant I was trying to dig up. I had to start laughing and wondering if any neighbors were doing the same.

 

So there’s life. A bunch of paths thrown at us some of which we take willingly (and blindly at times) but we move forward. And like life we rely on many ways to get us through but we need to know when to make changes. Like realizing that a good pair of shoes will only take you so far and you need to know when to get new ones. And you also need to know when to laugh.

 

So good bye to my old Merrells. Thank you for helping me get through life. And hello to my new Merrells. I’m sure we’re going to have some good adventures ahead of us. And laughter too.

 

Enjoy your day.