Rain Rain Go Away

I like rain. Really I do. California has been on the fringe of a drought for many years – never quite enough of a snowpack to give unlimited access to water. All this precipitation - rain here and snow in the mountains - means a relief from the drought and perhaps a little breathing room with the reservoir levels. The rain, therefore, is necessary and good.

Except for those people, like us, who are painting their house. The painters cannot work in the rain and the house has to dry for a day or so after it rains before they work again.

In the 22 days since the scaffolding went up, I think the painters have been here five days. They scraped and prepped and it rained. They came back several days later and put on some hideous primer (BRIGHT turquoise) and the next day it rained. The primer stayed on for a long time and neighbors were asking politely, but with concern, if this was the color we were going with. I assured them it was not. Once they heard that the relief was palpable. My friend and neighbor Debbie said she was glad, “the color was rather…Caribbean”; that made me laugh.

On the days they are here, the guys are very friendly and nice. They see Maggie’s bus coming and they scamper down the scaffolding to move ladders and drop cloths so she can get in. She waves happily at them and laughs when they are on the scaffolding. We watched three of them climb up together the other day. For some reason they go up with their back to the scaffolding, facing out onto the street. They obviously have been doing this for a long time because they can do it really fast. They look like monkeys and it is very entertaining

After a couple more days of work interrupted by rain and dry out days, the house is starting to take shape and it will look fabulous, but it HAS TO STOP RAINING. They came this morning. YAY! The skies are threatening again and rain would ruin any work they started. Nelson, the foreman, asked me if it was going to rain, and I said it is not supposed to, but it sure feels like it. I moved the nurse’s car out of the driveway and they were going to concentrate on the back of the house. Steve asked me if I was sure it was not going to rain. I just shrugged and said, “You know, I’m not God.” (He was shocked at this news.) After about ten minutes the painters left saying they were leaving to go scrape another house. It’s the right decision, but ARRRGH!

Soon the famed California sun will come out to stay. The best weather in San Francisco is generally in May and the first part of June and then again in September and October. May 1 is just around the corner and I hope to have a freshly – and completely - painted house to welcome the sunshine.

I have to go put the nurse's car back in the driveway.