Boston Dispatch #5 – I might need a chiropractor

I do believe I’ll be getting to bed at a more reasonable hour tonight. I slept in until 9 this morning and shuffled around, fiddling with my damnable homemade Tivo until around 2. Mel, Pat and I had talked about getting a car and heading to Brookline to Costco/Home Depot today but the car fell through. I ran out of patience with the computer so I decided that it was time to get cracking on some painting. I walked to my neighborhood hardware store (where I’m a nigh-celebrity nowadays) and got a couple of gallons of paint, color ‘Sun Mist’ or some such. It’s a pale yellow for the study, kitchen and probably the hallway. I came home and set to task painting the study.

It took me the better part of four hours to get the room paint with a first coat. Not exactly record breaking, that. But, I did it the right way…and I didn’t tape off anything so I had to be precise. In the silence and movement, I got to thinking about my Dad. I remember doing a lot of painting with him and I’m really glad that he taught me how to do it right. Of course, were he alive and here today, I’m sure he would have found a ton of flaws in my work. All the same, I had my Dad-approved Purdy paint brushes and though I wasn’t ‘cutting in’ perfectly around the trim like he could, I’m sure he would have given me an ‘E’ for effort. Man, I miss that old codger.

I wrapped up the paint around 7. I’ll need to put a second coat on tomorrow but that should go fast. My goal is to finish the study and the hallway tomorrow. Tuesday, I’d like to get the kitchen and bathroom done. Wednesday will be a long day since I’ll need to get the living room and the bedroom done and they’re by far the biggest two rooms we have here. Thursday, the movers are slated to arrive and then, gloriously, I’ll be able to sleep and sit comfortably once again.

Since Brooke isn’t here yet, I got too eat Indian food at one of the dozen Indian restaurants near by. Sooooo tasty! And reasonable, too. For $11.50, I got appetizer, soup, chicken korma (officially, the world’s tastiest dish), dessert and tea. Plus, when I said ‘I like my korma hot as Hades’ they actually listened and put a little bit of the devil in the dish. It’s been my experience recently at Thai and Indian restaurants they completely disregard my requests and instead make spiciness decisions based on my ethnicity. The ‘5 stars’ I’ve been getting lately have been ‘white-man spicy’ (2 or 3 stars, generally). Well, I’m happy to report that the fine folks at Gandhi Restaurant are color blind. My nose is still running.

Seeing as I’ll be painting pretty steadily over the next few days, I’ll try not to bore you with too many painting-related stories. I fully intend to take daily excursions to places other than the hardware store so, hopefully, that’ll make for some good copy. Perhaps I’ll get mugged? Perhaps I’ll drink booze from a paper sack with a few other bums on Mass Ave? Who knows…stay tuned.

Cheers,

Shaun.