The other day we received a memo. It said, if you have vacation days use em or lose em. I opted to take a few. You know what? I forgot how refreshing a couple days at home can be. Projects stack up and things can look a little overwhelming.

One of the projects I'd been considering for about 2 years now was replacing the screen on our sliding deck door. The cat had mangled it up pretty good and it was ready for replacement.

I thought I was going to take it off and take it to a store to get it fixed. That was the plan. That plan turned to dust when at first I couldn't even get the door off!  Finally, I gave in and had neighbor Al come help me. He did. We got it off. And I was off to the store to get it fixed.

OK. I should have saw that coming. When I put the door in my car and hauled it to the store I got there fine. Then I found out it would take 10 days to 2 weeks to get fixed.

UUUUUGGGHHH!  I knew that wasn't going to work going into the heat of the grilling season. I knew my wife was going to rail on me so I headed off to Menard's to pick up some supplies.

Holy crap!  Did you know there are THREE sizes of that stringy rubber stuff you have to use around the screen?  Did you know there were 38 kinds of utility knives to trim around the edges, 4 kinds of those pizza roller thingys to push the rubber stuff in and about 300 types of screen.  The day off was starting to look more like a day in jail.

I decided there, I didn't care how long it was going to take. I took 3 deep breaths, made my screen choice, paid up and left.

So, I get home. I'm ripping out the old screen and laying out the new and my wife and neighbor Carol are standing in the garage watching my project. This is why men have garages. So they can go mangle up some home project with nobody watching. But no, I had helpers watching.

Ladies:  Boy it sure is warm here today.

Me:  Yep, that is sweat your looking at.

Ladies:  Do you think that screen is too dark of a color?

Me:  Do you want to go shopping and get a different one?

Ladies  No.

Me:  OK. Then this ones going to work. Plus it had some dog and cat on the cover and said it's strong enough to keep the livestock in the house.

I laid out the screen. Measured it. Poked that thing in, pulled it tight, cut it off and said half a halleluiah. Yep, I knew I still had to get that door back on.

Luckily, Logan was home and he helped me. At first we didn't get it right. The door wouldn't move. I was just about to call Al again when I decided to go all JD on the door. I pounded it one time with my fist, swore under my breath, and it clicked into place. Yes, God showed his presence and gifted me with that screen door clicking into place. I don't think I've ever been more thankful.

A couple of modifications later the screen door is up. It looks better than the day we bought the house and it finally glides open and shut without sticking.

As you can tell, I don't like home projects. But I did learn one thing. Take one project. Allow a whole day for it if need be. Do the project and then drink a beer to celebrate.

From the looks of our place, I have a lot of days to plan. And a lot of beer to drink.

 

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