After the near fruitless photo creep I did last Saturday morning, and the rabid, angry-toothed dog meets insane random stranger in a parking lot incident, I took Sunday off to do whatever it is I do when not lumbering or taking photos. I think adult beverages and pre-Euro ’24 International friendlies were involved.
Come Monday, I was back in the woods but not feeling great. I hiked 5.5 miles, but I was dealing with some ongoing body fails and saw next to nothing to photograph.
Then, upon arriving home, I mowed the grass of the vast (not really) estate of the Cul De Sac Shack (we’re on a twice-a-week schedule now), followed by swearing to Wifey that I was done lumbering until I get my feet back to feeling like I’m 52, not 92.
In theory, that is a wise, mature thing to do. However, while I haven’t been lumbering, I have—despite my proclamation to stay in my lane—returned to prepping the deck to be restained. Or should I say stained with actual deck stain, not whatever peeling opaque stain/paint bullshit the builder used a few years ago?
MID-POST SIDE NOTE:
In my ongoing search for information about sanding and stripping decks, I’ve gone down a YouTube rabbit hole, and unfunny enough, the other night, I saw a dude who attempted to use the identical stain remover as I did on his deck with the same horrible results; in the end, he aborts and pays a professional, and concludes the video by saying “stick to what you know people, stick to what you know.” Sounds all too familiar, and I wish I would have seen the video before I spent $60 on two jugs of the worst product ever made for deck stain removal.
With that, two three days this week have been spent sanding, hand scraping, power washing, cussing, swearing, and having several come-to-Jeebus moments with my lack of legit man-skills and the bank account that Home Despot apparently has carte blanche access to.
As a result, I’m now about 45% done with the process and feeling better about it than I did last week, but still not convinced I will ever get it to the state I want and be forced to use the same kind of “stain.” But progress has been made, and thankfully, the only deadline I’m under is winter’s arrival.
And while my time away from the trails have my feet feeling a bit better, my hands, arms, shoulders, back, ass, knees, ankles, quads, and fingers all hurt, and I am way behind on my normal duties.
Thankfully, it rained last night and early this morning, so I can ditch more sanding until tomorrow and concentrate on the meaty balls of my to-do list as well as write this dross.
Fast Forward >>>
After a rainy morning of cleaning, laundry, and vacuuming, things got sunny and hot as fuck, so during my afternoon errand running, I picked up an inexpensive random orbital sander and a pack of 50 grit pads. I only had time to use it on the front and back of some railings and the two steps, but it was totally worth it, and I finally feel like I’m on the right track to getting things where I want. I don’t feel like I’m winning, but I’m inching closer to a draw that feels like a win.
In addition to taking a break for feet’s sake and working on the deck, Wifey is having some surgery next week, so I’ll need to husband up for a few days and put lumbering and ongoing deck failures on hold for a bit without letting my brain guilt me, lest ye return to the Bed of Torment to live out my days.
The decline of this blog since 2005 has been amazing to watch:
Wannabe endurance mountain bike racer turns magazine publisher, turns junk mile cyclist with a camera, turns pissed off depressive who stays in bed half the day, turns hiker, turns lumberist with a camera, turns shit deck refinisher. Just you wait until I start writing about doing jigsaw puzzles and my favorite episodes of Matlock.
To say this year’s lumbering has not gone to plan is an understatement, and when I christened it The 2024 Lumber Through Hell Tour, I really didn’t think it would be so literal.
Later.