Friday in July (in October)

It was another gorgeous day in Southeast Michigan. When I left work at 5:00 PM it was 76 degrees F.! And we are approaching mid-October!!

I changed clothes and started washing a week’s worth of work clothes. I have a lot to do this weekend and wanted to get a jump on it.

Then I sat on the front porch, enjoying the weather and fine-sanding the oak handrail. It took a while to get it right, but the results were well worth it. I wiped it down with a tack cloth and set it on the kitchen table while I got prepared for the next step.

I dug out my two saw horses (and I do mean “dug out”). This farm is a mess! I set those outside on the garage apron. The winds were light and variable and there’s too much good stuff in the garage (the car, the bike, all Jake’s stuff, etc.), to risk spraying it inside.

I went back in the house, grabbed the handrail, took it outside and set it on the sawhorses. Then I closed the garage door and got the can of polyurethane.

Sidebar: I bought those two cans of Minwax polyurethane for this project a few days before Jake and Carla left. So, on Sunday, when I went to clean out the last of the stuff from their old house, guess what I found Jake had left me: two brand new bottles of Minwax polyurethane!

Anyway, I shook up the can per instructions and then went out the front door. I sprayed on the first, light coat of polyurethane and left it to dry. I went back inside and switched the clothes to the dryer.

I am watching the time closely as you can recoat this if it’s under two hours since you last sprayed. Otherwise you have to wait 72 hours before spraying it again (and I don’t have three days to devote to this).

B___ called and we caught each other up. He’s been busy getting stuff off the boat (its up on the stands for winter now), hauling it home, washing it and putting it away for the winter.

I explained my project and he suggested that I not spray it again as it was getting dark and turning a bit humid. I explained the time factor and told him I had the porch light and the outside garage light turned on, and that I was going to take it inside the still warm garage to dry. He asked what I’d made for dinner (he made a pot roast) and I said I hadn’t got to that yet.

After we hung up, I hung up my clothes. Then I went back outside and sprayed the second light coat (after years of getting drips on things from over-spraying paint or polyurethane, I have become quite the fan of “light” coats, LOL!)

I was back inside just before 8:00 PM. I had just washed my hands when the phone rang. It was Jeremy, on his way home from an after-hours cutover. We talked for about 10 minutes when I said I needed to go and get some dinner (he did ask me at the start of the conversation if he was interrupting anything and I said no, because he wasn’t). So, we hung up.

Now I did have something planned for dinner, but by then it seemed like too much work. So I settled (well, I say “settled” but it was great) for leftover sausage, potatoes and sauerkraut.

I watched a movie that I joined in progress and went to bed at 11:00 PM when it was over.