Yesterday I spruced up a wicker rocker. It had been painted black a summer or two ago, been sat in and rocked a million times, was stored in the barn during winter, and now looked disheveled and half dead.
It needed a fresh paint job, but first, it needed a bath to get off the dirt, cat puke, and cobwebs.
The hose was handy, so I turned it on full blast and situated the chair a good 15 feet from the porch. The hose is one of those space saver kinds that shrinks when it is empty and expands when the water is on, which still doesn’t give you a strong blast and top speed, but we only needed to have some force to clean off the chair so it was going to have to do. I get busy and what do you know? Here comes a child. Apparently, a child cannot resist the sound of water coming out of a hose. She probably heard the squeak of the water spigot being turned on. “Can I do it?”
Ugh, there goes the job! The 10 minutes I’d take will now be at least 20 minutes, and someone will get wet. No doubt about that.
I let her, because A) she was helping! and if I turned her away, another offer from her would be slim to none, and 2) I knew she would have fun.
So I turn the hose over to her, she focuses on the chair, and is getting it relatively clean. Impressive. I see her focus the stream on the seat of the rocker and yell, “You’re taking the paint off!”. She stops and turns around and says, “There is cat puke there!”. “Oh,” I say. Thwarted. And then I felt like Wayne and Garth and said, with Garth’s twisted mouth, “Spray on”.
Once she was done cleaning the chair and it was sitting in the sunlight to dry, she morphed into a kid again. She checked to see how far the water could go if she had her thumb covering half the opening (pretty far!), she checked to see if the dog was waterproof (he is not), and she checked to see if she could see a rainbow in the mist (she could).
I finally had to huff and trudge to the spigot and end her fun. My god, how had I gotten so damn wet!? The water petered out and so did her smile. It was over. I had a clean chair, she had her fun and we all know that will NOT be the last time she gets her hands on the hose.
I’m a strong believer in water being really fun, especially from a hose, ONLY if you are the person holding that hose. The power you have! Don’t want to get wet? Let me see how close I can get the spray to you. There is a bike sitting close by? Let me wash the whole thing because I saw a speck on the seat. Don’t mind the giant splatter coming back at you or others!
She’s a kid, I get it! Eventually, I’ll learn to hand the hose over and get the hell out of dodge. And throw a towel out for her when she is done. And thank the good Lord we don’t have city water, AKA a giant bill. But when the well runs dry…nah, I won’t let it get that far, but in the meantime, spray on, little girl, spray on.
As soon as the chair was dry, I got out the spray cans and got to work painting the chair black (again) and finishing it with a clear coat. Every shake of the can, with that dang ball clicking and clacking in there, was an announcement to her, and I was hoping the tv volume was up too high for her to hear it. The hose is one thing, but spray paint? Ab-so-lute-ly not. I’m kind, not dumb.
I got through the task of spray painting the chair with no helpers, and while I’m writing this, I’m rocking in that chair, and each creak I hear is a reminder of the help she offered, the fun she had, and the relief I felt when I finished the project…solo.
She’s sleeping now, early-ish still, but when she wakes, she will notice there is a pile of dirt and wood forms ready for cement. She will get excited at the prospect of another project and will want to help. This time, I’m not in charge, but I’ll have to tell her to take it easy on the crew. This’ll be fun to watch.
Hoss & Weasel 