Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland. Since much of my news these days relates to trying to age gracefully, this series might be called The Geezer Gazette.]
2/22/25
Aloha Everybody!
This week I learned that old house paint is not like wine --- it doesn't get better with age. In fact, it's more like humans with their definitive expiration dates. Last week I wrote that I was going to paint my new
stair railings to match the walls. Being the miser that I am, the paint I used was left over from a project a few years ago. Usually I write the date I bought paint on the can, but this time I didn't, so I'm not sure exactly how many years ago that was. At first the paint seemed fine -- it mixed well and went on smoothly. However, after several hours I found that it was still tacky and had a rough feel to it even though it was supposed to be smooth semi-gloss. I waited a couple of days but it didn't get any better. Finally, I bought a new can of paint, sanded down the railings and painted them again. BIG difference! Lesson -- don't be a cheapskate when it comes to home projects. It will only cost you more work.and money in the end.
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| A Vintage Year |
My second mea culpa of the week involved our Valentine's Day Covid vaccinations. Covid is very low here at the moment, so there was no urgent health reason to get the latest boosters yet. However, we felt that getting them not only added to our protection against the disease, it was also kind of a political act -- a message that we believe in the overwhelming body of scientific data that shows vaccines are safe and effective. "Shows" here refers to the extremely high probability of positive outcomes and the very low probability of truly serious negative ones. Of course it is very common to experience short-term discomfort after receiving vaccines, a sign that our immune systems have been successfully tricked into manufacturing antibodies for battling the real disease from the vaccine's harmless virus fragments. In this case both of us had surprisingly little reaction at first. Then, shortly after I published last week's missive, we both got slammed with sore arms, achy muscles and joints, and in general a feeling maybe like being it by a Mack truck. This lasted into Sunday but by afternoon we were well enough to do a light workout at Planet Fitness. Lesson: a little pain can lead to a great gain, and even make a statement against political idiocy.
We didn't play golf this week, but we did go to the practice putting green and the driving range at Makalei. The putting went ok, although whoever designed the practice green made it devilishly difficult -- a chance to practice getting frustrated as well as your putting skill. Driving practice was a different story. The Makalei driving range is on a slope with a great view of the ocean about 5 miles away. The horizon is low in your visual field because of the downward slope. and this means that a well-hit ball is immediately high enough so that it is against a sky/cloud background. If you have good eyesight this isn't a problem. If you don't, like Karen and me, then it is as if the ball has instantly disappeared. If you're lucky you may see where it lands, but that requires knowing the trajectory of the ball, another eyesight-dependent task. I found that if I stood directly behind Karen I could usually see where her ball was going, and likewise she could see mine from behind. I suspect this arrangement was somewhat humorous for other golfers to watch. Also, it was a good thing the price is based on the number of balls you hit and not the time it takes to hit them. We followed our duo magic act with a lunch at Patricio's Taqueria down near the shore, a tasty reward for our efforts and angst.
Ok, off our our usual Saturday morning activities. Stay warm. Stay calm. Smile.
2 comments:
I had a similar, but better outcome with saved paint. My contractor is meticulous. He looked at my old paint, which he had purchased, assessed the date, which he had place on it. He first said it was beyond redemption. Then he got curious and stirred in some water. Then he strained it and voila, it went on the house he says it looked right and now it's down it still looks good. I think he finished it all off this time. Probably not keeping for another time!
I built a bat house over a year ago. It took me the entire year after to 1. sand it, 2. Caulk a few seams then 3.Prime it white and finally 4. paint it. Which I did without reading the can of "paint." It seemed it wasn't covering very well. Even the third coat was showing white primer. I did a 4th coat, being really persistent, and as the bat house is really small, this isn't a big deal to paint. Finally, I looked my can and discovered it's stain and not paint. As such, it was designed to go on raw wood, not primer and to stain the wood, not create a tough finish. My contractor looked at it as I had him mount it on a pole and he said with that much stain it will be fine and the bats won't care! It's not in the line of sight of anyone, but the bats that have been hanging out on our house. that we hope to eliminate as we get it tightened up a bit more
Bats! One of my favorite animals. We have them here and in fact the endemic species is one of the only two mammals that were here when the Polynesians arrived around 1200 years ago. We see them foraging at dusk occasionally, and I always cheer them on. I'm curious as to how bad the bat house looks?
I hope your house paint experiment goes well. At first my paint seemed ok, but I didn't have an expert assess it like you did.
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