Honey-Do List: 2013-2014.
* Paint the bedroom. I will happily do the trim work. Only.
Let's see. This came up around January 2013. It was time. It had been a few years and Roger had only painted for Karin in recent years. It was my turn.
Things kept coming up. Couldn't decide on new linens. Couldn't find my exact heart's desire of a paint color. It's too cold. It's too hot. We have something to do this week, so wait a week. Plans go on and on. We'll get to it. January 2014, it was still on the list. Trip to France, get taxes ready for Mike, therapy appointments, let's go to lunch today, misc whatever it is that we used to do during the week, and then "Take the taxes in and let's get this thing off the list, ok?" That last one was the morning of February 10.
He was willing and I stalled. There has to be a scripture somewhere that says ..."Hello there, do it today!"
Give me a canvas or let me paint a mural on a wall, and I am all in. Right there, ready to go. Give me a wall with ONE Shade of paint and UGH! I will avoid it like the plague.
Roger, on the other hand was ready to go if I had the paint. He would help me pile everything into the middle of the room, cover it with a painter's canvas or plastic, try to encourage me to get the trim started (which I generally did once I realized that he was TERRIBLE at trim work - my ceilings still have evidence of early paint color changes) and he would go make coffee.
Once I was ready, the rules were simple.
1- get me a radio
2-get me a fan
3- keep my coffee cup filled.
NO PROBLEM?
(Leave me alone and don't check up was only slightly problematic)
I will never forget the day that I decided the hall should be yellow, not blue. It might have been the first room I let him have a go at on his own. I mean, how can painting a hall go badly? It was an overnight brainstorm and he was ready for a change. He had the day off and I could stay out of his hair. The blue was too dark for him, he wanted it lighter. Sure! "Go get the paint, honey, yellow will be fine." I learned my lesson that day when the girls and I came in from school. We had in mind light, airy, butter yellow. When we walked in, we could see the hall! "Who left the lights on?"
No lights were on. Get it?....this thing was only slightly off of NEON yellow!
That might have been one of the biggest laughs of our lives, and the funniest thing was...he liked it!
I might as well have suggested Fire Department Safety Yellow. All we needed was a flashing light!
Seriously, who goes to pick out paint and gets the loudest, brightest, most unbelievably bright yellow on the color cards? That would be, Roger Tome.
Ah, I never did let Roger pick out paint by himself ever again, and oh, how I wish that I had kept a camera handy back in those days. (Film...pricey...we did not keep a record of every breath back in those days!) This is one of the memories I will have forever etched in my mind - in living color, no less!
I am laughing today to take my mind off of wanting to whine. (as in, my wrist hurts, the arthritis in my thumb hurts, my elbow hurts, I need a back rub, my shoulder hurts, can I have some more alive?) Whining is no good because Roger is not here to bail me out. I can promise myself an epsom salt soak at the end of the day, but that's about it. Ouch, my neck just crackled too!
Roger's Lesson: Team up and push through. Get 'er done and don't save it til tomorrow because there might be something really great to do.
In other words, dig in and don't procrastinate.
Will I ever learn that lesson?
I would not bet on it!
Missing you today baby, in ways I never expected. I am not quite as self sufficient as I would like to think that I am. I'm trying to smell the coffee, and wish I were at Macy's.
This new paint does not even make it smell like you just painted. It just is not the same without you.
And I might add, that there is one thing you did NOT teach your girls. ...
The love of painting a wall for their mother.
Sweet post about you and your man.
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