Work on a beautiful day

This marks the end of my second full rotation of work since the end of July.  I was laid off for all of one rotation and most of another, and was actually expecting to be laid off for all or most of August.  I had plans, all involving the house.  But of course, those plans did not include getting robbed.

Mostly I want to paint.  My front porch needs to be repainted.  Much of the paint I applied just four years ago is peeling off.  I could have repainted last year, but last summer never saw more than three days in a row without rain.  This summer the main enemy of painting has been oppressive heat, occasionally interspersed with torrential downbursts.  My layoff period at the beginning of this month featured both of these weather phenomena, so I didn't get painting done then.

I also want to refinish my porch furniture, and sand and repaint my wrought-iron fence.  That last item will be a huge and tedious undertaking.

The weather these past few days would have been perfect for any of these projects.  Unfortunately I have been at work when I could have been doing these things.  At least I'm earning money, for now.  But rather than being therapeutic, work has been a source of stress since the robbery - while I'm at work, I'm away from the house, and the people who robbed my house the last time have probably figured out my schedule by now, if they're planning to rob the other side.  Soon I'll have a security system installed, and I'll have a little bit of peace of mind.  (Hmmm...come to think of it, I'd better get a security camera installed that covers the front gate, which will probably be the next target of scrap-metal thieves.)