2003-05-27 - 10:34 p.m.
It was an all-construction weekend: three solid days of work outside. By some miracle it didn't rain or get too hot or too windy. The front fence is completed (although we still have the gate to do) and we have a good running start on rebuilding the pergola in the back. One bench is completed, and the other is begun. There is more to be done and we will do it, but today we are.... tired. There is something good about working outside and getting physically tired, feeling the ache of all the muscles you never use. Sometimes I think I prefer it to the kind of mentally tired I get from a day at my job, when I am tired of people and their demands, office politics, the phone. My back is stiff, my hands are full of cuts and splinters and scrapes, my arms and legs are bruised. But I still love feeling like I can do anything I set my mind to, regardless of how hard I have to work. I hope I never back away from something I want just because it might be difficult or make me tired and sore.
Sunday was a twelve hour construction marathon that ended with us rushing to nail up the last few fence slats just before the sun went down. We finished with only about ten minutes to spare, exhausted but elated, and then sat on the porch in the dark, drinking a glass of wine and congratulating ourselves.
I've been amazed at all the attention we are attracting. The neighbors with whom we are friendly have tossed out a few words of encouragement or compliment, and that is appreciated. But we have also had passers by stop in the street or on the sidewalk and just stare at us or yell out comments, just as though we were monkeys in the zoo, incapable of understanding how rude they are. We even had a man, a complete stranger, walk right up the steps into our yard, look over all of our tools and materials and pass judgement on everything.... then he started telling us what to do and how to do it! The sight of two women building a fence must be terribly disturbing to cause such a stir.
So it was good to finally move to the backyard on Monday, and not have an audience for our work. But this turned out to be a more complicated project. The pergola is a wooden structure the size of a small room. The top of it is a natural "roof" of thick intertwined wisteria vines, and the inside holds two long, built-in benches. Over the years, the benches had deteriorated and were no longer usable, so we are building new ones into the basically sturdy framework. The first thing we had to do was get the old ones out. Everything came out easily except for ONE board that was connected to the structure with large rusty nuts and bolts. It was just ridiculous how much time we spent on those two bolts, pounding, twisting, prying, trying to invent new ways to keep the stupid things from spinning around in their holes instead of unscrewing. Finally, exasperated, I had a dim memory that there was some chemical that was supposed to dissolve rust. So I went to the hardware store and found the wonderful substance called "Liquid Wrench." After purchasing this and another new "steel wrench" and devising a method that involved Piper standing on one of the wrenches and me jumping up and down on the other one to loosen it (I know it is hard to visualize, just take my word for it) we finally triumphed over the rusty bolts. Piper remarked that rust must be one of the strongest substances in the world, and they really should consider using it for things like the space shuttle...
Unfortunately this weekend seemed to be the last turning point in our mosquito-free spring. I went out this evening to water some plants and got three bites in a matter of minutes. So all outdoor activities from now on will be complicated by the need to avoid the pests. But this year I have a new motto: better living through chemistry. Inspired by the success of Liquid Wrench, and Weed N' Feed and Slug Getta and Miracle Gro... I am going to arm myself with chemical weapons against the little blood suckers. Sometimes I wish there was something I could spray around the house to ward off the large, two-legged pests. I'd buy a large can of Mind Your Own Business.
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