Somebody's Gotta Do It

I've been spending a lot of time getting high lately...on a ladder, that is. It's the dreaded paint-the-house-syndrome and it started in the kitchen. Now it's spread to the adjacent family room and it's killing me. Painting is the kind of hard work I thought I was immune to. Apparently not. I've spent the past several days taping, spackling, sanding, painting, caulking, screaming, cussing, aggravated and exhausted. Oh, and sore. When I get up in the mornings, everything hurts. You may not believe this, but I'm not as young as I once was. The old joints and muscles moan and groan in protest, but still, I soldier on. I have to. The place is an absolute mess. The kitchen table is paint and tool central. We haven't had a sit-down meal in days. Every night for dinner we stand around our island like it's happy hour at our favorite bar and all the seats are taken...Ron and PhillyTwo in their nice work clothes and me in my not-so-nice "work clothes" with the added bonus of paint splatters up and down my arms and all over my hands. "Could you pass me a chicken wing and a napkin?" "Who needs another beer?"

While I really hate this kind of work, it just makes sense that I should be the one to paint, since I'm the one who has the time to do it. The only thing that makes the work tolerable, though, is the music. I keep the t.v. tuned to the soft rock station and I can sing along to just about every song they play. Like PhillyTwo says, music makes everything better.

As for my aching joints, I may have found a "cure" for that, too. The other day at tennis, a lady told us about a home remedy to ease joint pain. You soak golden or white raisins in GIN for at least two weeks and after that, you eat 9 each day, apparently for the rest of your life. Anyhoo, your joint pain supposedly disappears. The tennis pro suggested that a daily jello shot would work just as well, but I don't think so. I think the GIN turns the plain ol' raisins into MAGIC raisins and I'm going for it. How can you not love the idea of GIN-soaked raisins as a cure for anything? I especially love the number 9. It's karmic for me. I was born on the 9th day of the 9th month and somebody tells me to eat 9 GIN-soaked raisins everyday? Oh, hell yes.