Sunday, April 09, 2006
The Procrastinating Painter
My dear wife and our three children took the Spring break week and headed to the left coast to visit our niece and nephew. I was left with very specific instructions while they were gone. Paint the house.
Now, some of you may recall a column I did some months back when I let you know that I had been sandbagged into painting just “one” wall in our house. I realized in horror once I had completed that one wall that many more walls were to come. And here it was.
From Tuesday to Friday, during our daily phone conversation, my wife kept asking me how the painting was going and how it was looking. From the Tuesday on, I kept telling her how hard I was working and it looked terrific.
As you are reading this now, so is my wife. I started painting around 8pm Friday night. There it is… the truth is out.
Mid-day Friday, I started to debate my options. Would she believe that I painted it all, didn’t like the colours, so I painted it back to the original colours? Most likely not. I even thought about hiring a painting crew but time was against me.
My procrastinating and daily lies had condensed my painting window to less than three days. Toss in a St. Albert Trade Show where Saint City News had a booth and it made for a busy weekend. I believe I painted for roughly 24 hours during that 3 day period. I have discovered muscles I did not know were there.
I think I could have done it in 20 hours were it not for two things. One being that silly, stupid green painter’s tape. There is a reason they claim it comes off easy. It doesn’t stick in the first place. As for the tape that did stick where it was supposed to, my cute little puppy Georgia was kind enough to rip off.
As I cleaned the last brush and put away the paint cans, in walked my family from their trip.
“Wow!” my wife exclaimed. I was beaming with procrastinator’s pride.
She then stood staring at the NINE walls I had painted and mumbled the most dreaded words that painting husbands fear “So…what do you think of the colour?”
Now, some of you may recall a column I did some months back when I let you know that I had been sandbagged into painting just “one” wall in our house. I realized in horror once I had completed that one wall that many more walls were to come. And here it was.
From Tuesday to Friday, during our daily phone conversation, my wife kept asking me how the painting was going and how it was looking. From the Tuesday on, I kept telling her how hard I was working and it looked terrific.
As you are reading this now, so is my wife. I started painting around 8pm Friday night. There it is… the truth is out.
Mid-day Friday, I started to debate my options. Would she believe that I painted it all, didn’t like the colours, so I painted it back to the original colours? Most likely not. I even thought about hiring a painting crew but time was against me.
My procrastinating and daily lies had condensed my painting window to less than three days. Toss in a St. Albert Trade Show where Saint City News had a booth and it made for a busy weekend. I believe I painted for roughly 24 hours during that 3 day period. I have discovered muscles I did not know were there.
I think I could have done it in 20 hours were it not for two things. One being that silly, stupid green painter’s tape. There is a reason they claim it comes off easy. It doesn’t stick in the first place. As for the tape that did stick where it was supposed to, my cute little puppy Georgia was kind enough to rip off.
As I cleaned the last brush and put away the paint cans, in walked my family from their trip.
“Wow!” my wife exclaimed. I was beaming with procrastinator’s pride.
She then stood staring at the NINE walls I had painted and mumbled the most dreaded words that painting husbands fear “So…what do you think of the colour?”
