Available vs. Optimal
My September project (yes, I know it’s October) has been to scrape and repaint the cedar shingles on the side of our home. This one side gets beat to crap by the sun, wind and rain. The rest of the house looks fine, but this one side was really showing it’s age.
I borrowed a Little Giant Ladder from a friend, bought a handy dandy paint scraper and waited for a nice day to started. Unfortunately many of the days I had available to work on the house were wet, rainy or windy. Not the best conditions to scrape or paint. So I waited for better weather.
Early September turned to mid-September. Finally my schedule and the weather conspired to bring me success. Over three days in two different weeks I got the scraping done.
Mid-September became late September. Dark was coming earlier and dawn was arriving later. The temperatures were dropping and morning moisture was making me wonder how late in the morning I should wait to get started to provide optimal painting results.
I had another break in the weather. The local meteorologist promised clear skies and “fair weather clouds.” I was about half-way finished putting on a coat of primer when the sky above me turned threateningly dark. I could feel the wind picking up. I silently cursed Kevin Mannix for lying to me.
I kept painting. I just hoped that the rain didn’t come before I finished. I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the work I just completed.
Amazingly, those threatening clouds just kept swirling above me but never released a drop of rain on me or my project. Phew!
Another week passed. The one day I had available to apply the first coat of paint was rainy. Busted!
Believe me, I’ve been keeping my eye on the weather forecasts, and if it hadn’t been my niece’s wedding day, I would have stayed home to paint. But alas, some choices are easy to make even though this past Saturday would have been an optimal day to paint my house.
The weather report said today would be a great day for painting. Well, they didn’t say it that way, but when it said “partly sunny” and temps “65-70″ I knew it would be a good painting day!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be available. You see I had to work last night (6 p.m. til 6:15 a.m.). Oh well…
But I got a lucky break. A mixup between a coworker and my supervisor meant that only one person was absent last night. Sweet! I was able to leave at 2 a.m. Come home, grab five hours of sleep, and then get up to paint!
The first coat of paint is drying as I type this entry. Yeah!
Hopefully the second coat will get done on Friday. I’m available and the weather is looking promising. But that can all change in the blink of an eye.
The point of this long report is that sometimes we have to do things when we are available even if the conditions are not optimal. Sometimes we have to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves not when we’ve planned for them.
I knew today’s weather would be good painting weather. I knew that working last night would make it impossible for me to take advantage of it. But then an unexpected opportunity presented itself. If I hadn’t know that today would be nice weather-wise, I probably would have worked the full night and missed out on this opportunity.
Lord willing this September project will be done this week. I’m behind schedule but I’m still focused on the goal. It will get done. Even if the conditions are not perfect, I’ll find a way to make due.
