I get ‘board’ painting fence 11.05.09
WHEN I was young I used to
like Tom Sawyer. It was one of the most memorable books
I read and I had always liked the story about him
whitewashing the fence and conning all the other kids
into doing the work for him.
Recently however, I have begun to wonder just how
realistic that whole tale really was.
I say this because last week I had to paint the fence
that runs alongside my garden and, well let’s just say,
I had little success in securing the services of anybody
else to do the work for me.
And it’s not to say that there was nobody passing by
either. Loads of people walked by during the few hours
that I spent painting, but nobody stopped long enough
for me to con an apple core from them.
Whatever the reason, nobody was hanging around long
enough for me to offer them a chance to have a go at
painting a few panels for me. |
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And so I was left with the
mundane task of dragging a brush over and back across a
fence without so much as even the prospect of a decent
karate fight at the end of it.
Just as well too I might add because I don’t know karate
(although I can make some karate sounds) and anyway by
the time the twelfth panel was painted I could barely
move my arms.
All this led me to wonder if there wasn’t an easier way
I could have gone about this.
Well, okay, there is an easier way, I could have got one
of those paint spray things, but that would have meant
forking out money and I don’t intend having to paint the
fence for quite some time again.
And maybe that’s not the right thing to say, but that’s
just the way it is. You see in a few weeks time my
youngest girl will make her confirmation, after which
some people will come back to the house. Were it not for
that, I think the lovely flaky shade of brown that the
fence was until last Tuesday, might have lasted for
another year, or maybe even two.
But I like things to be tidy when I know people are
coming around, in the hope that it gives them the
impression that this is the way it is all the time.
In fairness, I think most people are the same. I mean
who ever wants somebody to drop in on them unexpectedly
when they are in the middle of tidying out the kitchen
cupboards? And with something like the confirmation it’s
great because we know the exact day and roughly the time
that people will arrive which just means that if we can
get everything tidied by then, it should be fine.
With that in mind over the past few weeks I have been
battling my way through a long list of garden chores
that hopefully will make a wonderful impression on all
the visitors.
Included among them though was the job that I have been
putting off for as long as I could - painting the damn
fence. I don’t know why I hate painting the fence so
much. I mean it only has to be done relatively few times
compared to say cutting the hedge, but still the very
thought of it is enough to put me off.
At least in that respect it is like the Tom Sawyer
story, and I would usually think of all the fun things I
could be doing instead of painting the fence and then go
and do them. |
But it got to a stage where
I felt that I could no longer put off the dreaded task
any longer and while I took the brush and paint from the
shed at 10 am and didn’t actually start the painting
until 6.30 pm, at least I got it done.
And you know what? When it was finished it looked great
and I was chuffed with my work.
Not that it didn’t still make me wonder why none of
those people who walked past didn’t stop for longer.
Then I realised … perhaps they had all read Tom Sawyer
when they were younger too. Or maybe, just maybe, they
all had fences of their own to paint and dreaded it
every bit as much as I do… |
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A DROP OF
PORTER is
the weekly
column of
Inishowen
Independent
editor,
Liam Porter. |
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