Dain Bramage

It's been a long time since I wrote anything in this blog. No real reason other having discovered youtube and how to play spider solitaire on the computer. I am helping my brother paint his house and yes I know it's almost November. The house is covered in white slate pieces that I'm sure had a life time guarantee that never needed painting. I suspect no one thought it would last this long. There is a historical record of a trading post in our area that no one has ever found the remains of. I often think the bottom floor bedroom is that old post and the house was just built around it. Anyway, the county sent him a letter telling him he had to paint the house or else. It has to be done by November 10th. The saga begins with me trying to find paint, sprayers, power washers and such this time of year. Everyone I talk too looks at me like I've lost my mind and tell me you can't paint this time of year. It's too cold and wet so the paint will just peel off. Well tell that to the county! Note to the wise; the county recycled paint programs are closed for the winter. sigh.
Another brother and I are trying to help him get the painting done but we know there's no way to have it in on time. I've been calling the county daily for the last 2 weeks to get an extension. (the people at the paint program told me to do this) Only problem is no one returns my calls during the normal hours so I still haven't talked to them.
The house is a 2 story structure with lots of built on's from the previous owners. Sometimes I think we'd get lucky if it got hit by lightening so he could collect insurance. The front of it is pretty much done. We painted it dark chocolate brown with beige trim. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Both of these brothers have really bad backs. I decided to take the top part of the house and work my way down. That would keep them off the ladders which I thought would be less stressful. The opposite was true. They could have climbed the ladders and left me on the ground to tote around all the heavy stuff. My knees are in revolt and walking is painful. I had hoped to get some work done today as the weather is nice, but the brothers aren't able. One has to work and the other is lying in bed groaning inbetween back spasms while waiting for the muscle relaxer to kick in. I wish I had gone ahead and at least tried to power wash the side of the house so it would be dry and ready to go by tomorrow. Oh well, I'll just have to do twice as much to make up for today. Darn county. This is really the first salvo fired by a disgruntled neighbor. The brother says it stops here, with him. He is not going to retaliate or try to get even. He's just going to try to meet the counties demands and leave it at that. I'm proud of him. It would be easy to get angry and reciprocate. He's a braver man than I am Gunga Din.