What the heck was I thinking? (Part 1)

There are people who refinish decks for a living. They make good money. There is an excellent reason for that.

I tried to save all that good money by choosing to refinish our deck myself. All I can say is, "OW!"

I have splinters, blisters, and I think I'm developing carpal tunnel syndrome. It's freaking HARD to paint all those stupid little balusters! I think I am going to start an "I Hate Balusters" group.

I got the entire "upper level" of the deck's railings painted, including the back stairs, and part of the front porch railings and steps done. I still haven't even started on the floor of the deck, which is getting a different treatment than the railings. I could cry.

We decided to start this huge project last week because Tim was off work. We figured it wouldn't take more than a week to pressure wash and stain the whole deck. HAH!!! We didn't count on the bad weather postponing our work for two days. So now, he's back at work, and all the staining is falling to me. I haven't been writing yesterday, and I won't get to it today either. I have essentially put all that on hold until I get the deck finished. I have two days in a row of good weather, so I have to run out and pick up another gallon of paint for the railings.

There's no point in trying to write until all the physical work is done, though. I spent 8 hours on it yesterday, and the sooner it's done, the better the world will be. I have to take advantage of the good weather, because we're expecting rain on Wednesday. If I can get this all done by tomorrow night, I'll be so happy! At least the physical work is tiring me out enough to sleep at night, despite the book screaming at me in my head. It's better than the alternative, which is to try to keep writing in my exhausted state and have the story make no sense whatsoever. I'm afraid I'll have to start all the way back at the beginning again, because the choppy work I've done on it so far still leaves me confused when I sit down to write again. I forget what I've already written, and I'm worried it's repeating stuff, or leaving stuff out that needs to be there. And the plot line has completely fallen apart in my head. It's sad. I'm 40 pages in, and the damned thing has already derailed.

I hate balusters.