Recovery
Last Wednesday, on the day Rambis died, my in-laws arrived for a visit from California. They drove; I think Shirley prefers to fly, but I also think John prefers being able to drive home whenever the mood strikes him.Kristi apparently thinks so too, since every time John visits, Kristi encourages him to undertake a project so he won't pick up and leave immediately. One year he leveled our kitchen floor. Last year, he and Kristi's brother-in-law Augie both came, and the result was Emma's playhouse -- seen here before it was painted white and gray to match our house.
This year, John's project was a remodel of the playhouse: covering over the spiral-stairway entrance in the floor, adding a door and a deck and an outside staircase. Since Augie wisely didn't come this time, I spent the weekend being John's crew.
There are a number of downsides to working with/for John. For one thing, he shares Kristi's misconception that I can read minds. Example: we discussed the appropriate size of the door, and settled on 62"x23". I repeated these dimensions to him several times to make sure we both knew what I was doing; then I went off to the garage to build the door. When I returned, he'd opened up a hole for a 64" door. Somewhere along the line he'd changed his mind, and assumed that I would somehow sense it and adjust accordingly.
Another issue with working for John is that he's basically tireless. The womenfolk all went out for a day-long shopping trip on Saturday, and John had no desire to stop for lunch. At about 4:00 he let me make a beer run, but three beers each was our total nutritional intake until it got too dark to work. We'd have probably done the same on Sunday, had Kristi not insisted that we had to do something as a family (a trip to Stillwater to visit a pumpkin patch, which might get blogged later, or might not).
A third downside is that after a couple of days, my hands start looking like his hands. I've got various scrapes and a couple of really attractive blood blisters; on a couple of occasions I was afraid I'd broken a finger, but I lucked out.
On the upside, however, I was kept so busy that I couldn't dwell on Rambis. It didn't stop me thinking about her, but it did keep me from wallowing. Non-wallowing is good. Remodeled playhouse pictures will be posted in a day or two.
posted by MeanMrMustard @ 8:29 PM
<< Home