Through Thursday

Well here it is Thursday evening already...I thought that I would not make it through the day I was so tired. This morning was pretty typical; I did not go for my walk this morning as I wanted to start painting before the sun burned through the overcast sky. I finally finished breakfast and reading the paper a little after 0900, so I went outside and set up the shorter wooden ladder.

Then I went to the garage and got out the paint, small paint bucket and changed into my painting clothes, old shorts, old tee shirt, steel toed boots and old long sleeve shirt. Then I went into the mud room and got my paint brush out of the water filled jar where I had it soaking overnight.

I started on the front side of the house which is the other end from where I had been painting. I did this because I knew that the sun would be out soon and I was hoping that starting on the far northeast side would be the shadiest place to be. It was not long before the sun came out and the reflection off the upstairs window was really bright, brighter than I had expected.

I must have been quite a sight as the lady next door was taking some pictures of me up on the ladder. I am not sure why, but she probably never saw a old man thirty plus feet up in the air dressed as strangely as I was, by this time I had gotten my old straw cowboy hat on so I am sure that I looked a little strange.

Anyway I started out with almost a gallon of paint in my bucket and I was determined that I was going to finish it as it was all the paint that was left in the five gallon bucket and I did not want to put it back, nor did I want to open the other bucket today.

I got to about an inch left in my gallon bucket and had to force myself back up the ladder. I even had to trade the shorter wooden ladder for the longer aluminum ladder as I had painted all I could with the wooden one. By the time I finished the paint in the bucket I had painted all but about the middle five feet of the siding.

So tomorrow my challenge will be to finish that section and then I can go back to the smaller ladder and do the shakes which start at about ten feet off the ground. The shakes should paint a lot easier as there is a much better covering of paint on them. The siding was put up twenty years ago and has only been painted two times since I put it up.

I will still have to do the trim, windows and what not, but that should not be that difficult and I can do it at a slower pace. I wanted to get the higher siding done this week as it was suppose to be overcast all week. It pretty much was for Monday and Tuesday, yesterday we had some scheduled appointment, so I did not paint and today the sun cam out earlier than I would have liked it to...did I just complain about the sun shining?

Anyway, I finished painting about 1245 and Kathleen asked if I would like a chicken salad pita, it sounded like a good idea to me so she fixed my one and she had one as well. By the time I got done eating I realize just how sore I was, but I knew that if I did not get out for my walk soon I probably would not make it at all today.

So reluctantly I put on my walking shoes and took off. I started out my walk pretty much the same as I normally do, but about half way through I decided to try a different route, so I took off and walked up and down a couple blocks. I had walked the same streets earlier in the week, but then I just walked the upper sections, today I walked the lower sections.

I would up talking about four and a quarter miles, so it was a pretty good walk. By the time I got back home I was really tired. After sitting for a while I checked my blood pressure and it was 90/61 and my pulse was 60, I did not have any energy left, so I went and sat in my chair and looked at my Orvis fly fishing catalog and somewhere along the way I fell asleep. I finally woke up when Kathleen brought me a frozen citrus drink.

Before I realized it she had dinner ready and called me into the kitchen to eat. She made steaks and green beans, the steaks were only about five ounces apiece so not a lot, but it was enough to satisfy and I really was not hungry when I finished it.

Well, I was suppose to go to a global outreach meeting tonight, but I was just took worn out and did not have any reserve to try to force myself into going. That is one of the most discouraging thing is not having any energy anymore. Well, I probably will be calling it quits early tonight so I am just going to say good night now.