Maybe He Was On To Something

The "farmed salmon" color of one of the rooms. Pre rockstar painters.

K, of the Idahoans and father of Dr Jason, told me once that my dad could never be convinced to visit someone simply for the pleasure of spending time in his or her company—he always had to have a proposed job to entice him. Several proposed jobs that led him to eastern Washington and Idaho for a weekend visit comprised ferrying animals back to our farm—rabbits to add to our breeding stock, maybe a goat once, and—notably—a lovely gray heifer loaded into the bed of the pick-up truck and kept in with a temporary stock pen. Somewhere along Highway 26 in central Washington a couple of empty metal gas cans, which had been tied in the back of the pick-up with the cow, broke loose from their moorings and began to pitch around her ankles. My dad and my uncle, who had gone along for the fun, pulled over, and my uncle climbed up the stock pen to get at the cans. Somehow, the cow managed to connect with my uncle, and sent him sprawling several feet to the ground. They all did eventually make it back to Maple Valley. Two days later, my uncle was rushed to the emergency room with a blood clot in the leg, courtesy of the pretty gray cow. We named her Stormy.

I think my favorite though, of the jobs I hear my father was enticed by, was when K wanted to remove (replace?) the metal treads on a large tractor. I keep trying to imagine how on earth that was possible for the two of them.

Anyway, I am not entirely like my father—I will go to visit people simply for the pleasure of their company—but I did find this last weekend in Austin, helping C paint two rooms of their new house, an entirely satisfying way to spend time with a friend. I was also very impressed by how hard she worked. I know that I am somewhat obsessive about completing things, and she seemed to be as well. Over three days and probably somewhere around 48 badass woman hours of work, in 90 degree heat, we painted: on day one, two ceilings; on day two, two ceilings and two rooms; and on day three, two rooms once and the first one a second time, for a total of three coats. I don't know the entire square footage that we painted, but we used a total of 4 ½ gallons of paint, and that's quite a bit. And I will say, it looks professionally done.

And I feel that I have cemented a lifelong friendship.

The lovely yellow after three coats. And a lot of sweating.