Simmering in the background like a pot of overheated pasta, the deck calls to me like a siren sweetly singing. Harpies, more like.
Last week I managed to get a dozen 12′ cedar boards stained and set on stickers in the garage to dry, just waiting for a break in the weather.
It finally stopped raining today, so after my job interview at King County, I raced outside to see how far I could get with the damaged decking. It turns out that it was a blessing in disguise that we have had unrelenting rain since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.[1] The deck planking is so soggy that I discovered about two dozen more boards that look just fine, but when you press on them with something hard[2], they ooze like a sponge.
Hey! I know! Can I just set fire to this thing so we can start over? Here you see me cursing the weather gods and realizing that I never knew how much my wife hated me until she bought me a “fixer.”
Happily, the sky gradually cleared, and as the afternoon progressed, I got the worst rotted planks replaced with new, freshly stained cedar. Now we can use the grill without wearing a roofer’s safety harness!
Time for an extra long Long Island Iced Tea.