Progress report

Today I repainted a part of the wrought-iron railing on my new house.

That wasn't the plan. The plan was to paint all of the wrought-iron railing, except maybe the banisters on the steps, and the only reason I would skip them is because I was planning on putting another coat of paint on the central part of the porch, including the steps. (I didn't.)

The reality was that I was very comfortable in my bed this morning (flannel sheets, gotta love 'em) and didn't want to get out. And I was trying to call a friend who I can only talk to on weekends. And my stove took an hour to boil water for tea (I need to get that taken care of, or get the antique stove replaced.) And I decided to follow-through on the part of the plan that involved cleaning the front windows - inside and out, both sides of the house - and hanging up some Autumn gel window cling decorations that I bought the other day. (What? What are you lookin' at? They give the house a lived-in appearance, OK? So I don't wanna hear none o' your lip. What? You wanna take this offline? OK, pal...) And in the end, it was about noon when I finally gathered up my wire brushes and went out into the cold to begin scraping off the loose rust.

I quickly reformulated my plan. I would focus on the lower parts of the wrought iron, the parts where the rust was the worst. The rest I would deal with later.

My mother, aunt, cousin, and a friend all went to 4:00 mass just up the street from me. I suggested that after church they could come over and have a pizza party - as long as they picked up the pizza.

At 4:00 I had finished brushing, sanding, and masking-off and was just beginning to put brush to railing. I didn't finish even my reduced-scope task until about 5:30, a half-hour after everyone had shown up.

We ate the pizza. It was good.

I came back here around 8:00 tonight.

Now I'm tired.