HOW long?

Thirty-seven years tomorrow.

Thir ... ty ... Se ... ven years living with the same person ... tomorrow. Wow.

I have something I so much want to tell you all. Oh, how I want to tell you all... well, the five or six of you who might be reading this ... but I shouldn't ... not yet ... tomorrow? Maybe ... I hope so ... it's pretty exciting ... I'm excited anyway ... but I can't tell you ... not now ... later...

In the meantime there has been progress on the BFD which continues to occupy our spare time. There are now new rails on the narrow, smaller (smaller being a relative term) end of the deck which requires only a bunch more spindles and top rails to complete it (complete being a relative term). Of course, now that this project is almost over, our assembly line procedure has reached near perfection. If there was another BFD needing the same repairs I'm sure we could do it in half the time, or three-fourths the time, or at least a couple of days hours quicker; as if we would ever be stupid enough to do that. If this deck ever needs new planks, support beams, spindles, top rails or stairs again during my lifetime, I vote for moving.

One of the steps Dean stumbled upon to increase the efficiency, and speed up the process of this whole project, has been to waterproof the rails and spindles before he screws them on. Since that step didn't begin occurring til near the end of this project (see above near perfection), it means we had to go back and waterproof all the parts we've already installed. And, since he was tired of waterproofing the deck every year, he did some research, actually asked some questions (I know, who knew, men do know how to ask questions---if it doesn't involve directions) and purchased some super duper, guaranteed to last four years deck waterproofing stuff.

You'd think we could just slop it on those planks and be done with it, but remember, this is the guy who made us wash all the rocks from under the deck before we could put them back. So what do you think the step before waterproofing was? If your guess involved water, a special scrubbing broom and special stuff to scrub off mildew from redwood, you're right!

The dreaded mildew.

Oh, how I wish I had a picture of me scrubbing ... you'll just to trust that I scrubbed this.

As I was scrubbing with this specially designed mildew-scrubbing brush, it occurred to me that I probably didn't really need to feel guilty about not making it to the gym. I was sweating, my heart rate was nearing cardio range and I was sculpting my arms. And I didn't even have to pay a membership to do it.

This is August, and it should have been so warm that the newly scrubbed deck would have dried quickly, but no. Instead of global warming we seem to be on the edges of the next ice age.

Yes, that's frost on the roof....in mid-AUGUST!

So out came the fan, not to cool us off, but to speed the drying of the deck so we could move on to the next step. It was like hearing a prop plane warming up....for hours. I'm sure our neighbors really enjoyed the background noise as they ate dinner on their patio.

Once the required washing, scrubbing, rinsing, and sort-of-drying was completed, it was time for the rolling-on of the special guaranteed to last four years waterproofing stuff. When we started the rolling-on process the sun was still shining.

As we rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled, the sun got lower and lower and lower and the temperature got cooler and cooler and cooler. I donned a sweatshirt and Dean kept complaining about his toes being cold. I would have felt sorry for him but he'd switched out boots for sandals. I can't dress him all the time.

After an eight-hour day at work (for some of us) this process began at approximately 3:00 p.m. At about 5:30 p.m. we had a quick piece of warmed up pizza, and at 8:30 p.m., after the first coat of guaranteed to last four years waterproofing was on, we ate a boy do we deserve this guilt-free ice cream bar. Then it was back out for the final coat ... in the dark.

Note the stocking hat and sandals.

By 10:30 p.m. the prop plane/fan was turned off, the lights on the deck were back in the house, and the painting equipment was cleaned. Boy, that was fun ...

Finished (finished being a relative term).

Now all we need to do is go back out and touch up all the places we missed while we were rolling, and rolling and rolling in the cool, cool, cool air during the dark. But Dean told me that because it's our anniversary we don't have to work on the deck for Two whole days. He's a prince!

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HOW long?