Almost Too Good

It’s said that Eskimos have more than a dozen words for snow. Around here I think we could use about half that many for fog. Most of last week we had this incredibly thick fog. When I left for work in the morning it looked like it had rained, but it was just that the fog had covered everything with moisture.

This was the type of fog that carried a lot of moisture, sat right down on the ground, and didn’t move at all. It just enveloped everything. The good thing about this type of fog is there is nothing above it so it burns off quickly. There is no “deep marine layer” sitting on top of it. By 9:30 the sun starts to poke through, and by 10:30 it’s completely gone with not a cloud in the sky. Other fogs will just sort of lift off the ground to a few 100 feet and still block the sun all day.

This was OK for painting in the afternoons, but I had to be careful not to let bare wood sit uncovered all night or it would get soaked. Fortunately, Section 5b was small, so this wasn’t an issue. I was wondering how I would deal with this fog once I got on top of the wrap-around porch and started to work on Sections 7 & 8. I thought I might have to work on very small sections at a time and make sure what ever wood was stripped and sanded got primed before the fog rolled in around 6 in the evening. As it turned out, I awoke to brilliant sunshine this morning, and the fog is no longer an issue. Now the problem is the sun.

I was sick of working in the cold of the north side of the house, so I decided that once I got up on the porch I would do the west side first. The porch wraps around both the west and north sides of the house. Also, the west side is smaller, and does not have issues like the north side (more on that later), so it seemed like a good place to start.

Normally on the weekends I don’t start working on projects until after noon. Big mistake. I was absolutely broiling in the sun up there on the roof. The afternoon sun just beats down on me, and with the black shingles, it must been in the high 80s. Yes, I know, high 80s isn’t hot hot, but it’s hot enough and I’m pretty well spent at this point in the project. That, and I’ve pretty much become a weather wimp after living on the coast of No. California for 15 years.

Anyway, I got a lot less done than I had hoped. I was able to putty all the holes on both the north and west sides, and I got about 40% of the shingles scraped on the west side. I was hoping I would get it all scraped, sanded, and primed, so I’m a little disappointed. Tomorrow I’ll get an early start. The best news is, though, the weather is supposed to be like this for 8 days straight. If I don’t screw around, I might be able to get both sides painted before the next scheduled rain comes next Sunday. I’ll have to watch the weather predictions closely, because things could change.

I’m going to putz around the house a bit and see if I can get some more done when the sun falls behind the garage.