The yellow warning decal on the orange ladder was quite clear. "This is not a step. Do not stand here. May result in injury or death."So what are you going to do if you have an eight-foot ladder and a 14 foot pergola to stain, top and bottom?
The curving architectural feature on the side deck of our house is actually a practical device intended to deflect golf balls slicing toward the living room windows. We installed the gizmo five years ago and haven't lost a window yet.
Not that the hackers haven't been trying. We get dozens of near misses, balls in the yard, balls in the flower beds, balls on the deck, balls on the roof, balls in the gutters. But no balls on the windows.
So a little maintenance now and then seems a small price to pay for the peace of mind our french curve gives us. It is homemade from straight cedar pieces, sort of laminated, screwed and glued together in a bodacious shape unmentioned in any association by-laws. Our builder didn't know what "pergola" meant. "You mean gazebo, right?" Yeah, right. So we built it ourselves.The original white stain has been flaking off for about a year now. Stan did his powerwash and prep work over the past couple of days, counting on Thursday to be sunny and fair. It started out kind of freaky, with thunderstorm warnings north of us in Wright County. Then comes this hallacious wind, some thunder, a couple of tiny sprinkles, a few hail stones (honest) and then it all moves on to the south leaving us with a calm, partly cloudy high pressure zone with a bit of a snap to it. Perfect for painting.
Kathleen came home just in time to do her part, snapping a couple of photos to document this foolish event with a sixty-year-old semi-retired guy balancing on a ladder.
