I’m tired of being tired, sick of being sick and crappy about feeling crappy (that last one didn’t make any sense). Anyway, I’ve had this annual sinus thing going for a while and I’m ready to feel better. I’ve always had a sinus problem and winters in Michigan are no help. That coupled with the inside, DRY AIR, that screws up your nasal passages, and I just don’t feel up to speed. I’m not really sick but I don’t feel much like doing anything. It’s perfect ‘cuz since we’re in Michigan in winter and the cottage and Green Street houses are rented, there’s nothing to do anyway. I guess I could go through all the boxes in the basement, see what’s in them, and put labels on the outside but that would be a little OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder…what makes wanting to be neat a disorder anyway?) even for me. I wonder what Eskimos do sitting in an igloo all winter with their whole families. No TV. No electricity. No running water. No bathroom. Maybe I don’t have it so bad.

I promised Jean I would paint the boys’ bedroom in the Green Street house before the renters came. Naturally I left it to the last minute and waited until it got cold and Jean had the heat turned down to 50 degrees. On the plus side, I didn’t sweat a lot. On the minus side, since we’ve been moving and storing lots of stuff, it gets easier to throw things out so I threw out my paint clothes. All I had left was a pair of old shorts, already splotched with paint, and my Hawaii Underpants Run T-shirt that I had been using at the lake as “yard work garb”. The neighbor saw me painting through the window and started laughing. It didn’t take me long to figure out why.

I grew up painting houses. When we would move from one parsonage to another, we would paint. We would paint the one we were leaving so the new minister would have a clean, attractive house to move into, and would paint the one we moved into ‘cuz the minister leaving there wouldn’t always know the colors we wanted so they didn’t leave it freshly painted. Mom and Dad had rental properties through the years and we would help paint them. The churches would sometimes need painting so we were free labor for that project.

In all those years of painting I didn’t remember painting with oil paint. I’m sure we did but it seemed like we always used water based paints. They were much easier to clean up and much easier for kids to use. In the Green Street bedroom, the trim was oil based and the walls were water based, so that’s the way I painted them. One slight mistake…I always carry a paint rag or paper towel to wipe off spots that go onto the glass when painting windows. I did the same this time and also used the paper towel to make sure I didn’t go over where the trim meets the wall. Inadvertently I touched my leg with that paper towel about a dozen times with fresh oil paint. I now have blue green spots all over my left shin. I didn’t notice until I was taking a shower and the paint wouldn’t wash off. After 7 days and 7 showers, it’s still there. Hopefully it will wear off before spring when I go out running and riding bike in shorts.

I’m anxious to brew another batch of beer but will have to wait for the weather to co-operate. I want to do a batch of Imperial Stout and Matt tells me it should age in the secondary for several months. If I brewed it in January, it might be ready for the second annual wine and beer tasting in December. I haven’t brewed at the condo and it isn’t set up the best, but it’s all I have. I may enlist the help of a couple of Trilanders to make it easier to set up, take down and clean in between steps. I still have to figure out how to run water through the wort cooling coils when I have only one hose bib and that’s in the back. Oh well, I’ll get it figured out. Hey!! Engineering that project is something I can do to pass the time.

Just (Coughing So Much I Wake Myself Up) Jack