The Universe

I’d like to say that the reason I haven’t been writing the blog lately is that I have taken a lovely vacation away from all things and people that demand my attention. I would like to say that and what the hell, why not. How has your summer been?

I have been busy…ish the last few weeks doing work around the house that has been put off for far too long. I levelled out the sidewalk blocks so that this winter, unlike the previous two or three winters, I won’t be pushing a shovel full of snow and have the shovel catch on a raised block knocking the wind out of me. When it is forty below, I don’t want to be gasping for breath on the ground in a pile of snow. I haven’t quite finished yet, but the problem blocks have been dealt with and now I am fitting the smaller broken pieces into a mosaic pattern. That sounds really nice, but in reality I am just fitting them in any way they will go. I am leaving it up to Fate to make it look nice.

The other big project I have undertaken is to paint the fence and trim around all of the windows and doors. I borrowed a power washer from a neighbour and used that to strip away any paint that had loosened over the years. It works great! Mind you I have very low standards and after all any imperfections will be covered with paint…probably. We bought three gallons of “Heather” for the main fence and a gallon of “Western Sky” for the trim. For the most part, the body of the fence painted remarkably well, for the most part. Some boards were very thirsty for paint. The trim went pretty well, but it was apparent quite early on that “Western Sky” wasn’t the colour we thought it might be. It should have been “Henna” instead.

I kind of like “Western Sky” and there is/was/will be no way that I am going to repaint this year. Probably not next year either or the year after that. How many years are there in “No Fucking Way! I should say that “Western Sky” whatever colour it really is has been dogging Louise and me for over thirty years. When we were getting ready to sell our home in Black Diamond the trim was to be a chocolate bar brown but instead it turned out to be “Western Sky” or whatever it was being called at the time. Over the intervening years we have bought our favourite brown colour and it turned into “Western Sky”. We have taken the paint back only to find that the store didn’t make a mistake mixing; we made a mistake with the paint chip.

I give up! I am embracing “Western Sky” by that or any other name. The universe needs to surround me with “Western Sky” for some bizarre reason and it will keep turning up until I accept the reason. Of course the universe might just be screwing with me…

I just have the house and garage trim left to do and with any luck I will get it done sometime before the snow flies.

I tried to find a photo of the actual colour, but so far, no luck. Next time I am painting a house or a fence I should have no problem finding it.