The Crack Queen

I am a crack queen. I spent Sunday bent over to clean all the sides of the miles and miles of cracks between the planks of the deck. It’s tedious but essential work. If I didn’t do all this careful cleaning, the brushes would get clogged with pieces of peeled pain, Fir needles, and dead insects and potentially spread all the crap on the deck surface. So, I am the designated cleaner.

After an hour of crack, I changed to sanding the front deck. All I did all day were things that required that I bend over so my back was throbbing by the time I took each break. Ibuprofen kept my hip from becoming too sore to work.

It was a gorgeous day all day. Bright sunshine and a constant breeze made monstrously fragrant by the emerging Ocean Spray blossoms. I’d never heard of Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor) before moving to Gabriola, and that amazes me. To think I’d never seen, smelt or heard of this glorious bush before says a lot about how disconnected from nature I was in Vancouver. Ocean Spray makes our entire island fragrant—especially when there is a super bloom.

I finished sanding the front deck at 2:30, then I took Her Highness to the park where the huge fields so finely accommodate her feet for games of fetch-the-ball. She loved chasing the ball and I love how it tires her out before an evening of couch time. 

And then, last night was the Tony Awards. How I love the Tonys, and last night was no disappointment. I love how “left” everyone is, how talented everyone is, and how gracious so many of them are in their acceptance speeches. (I only heard the word, “God,” once. And Ariana deBose is a miracle. Her opening number was spectacular.

Today, Pete arrives at 9:30 and we’ll be working all day. He is going to clean the roof so that no forest detritus falls on our staining, but the bulk of the day will involve his work replacing the rotten wood on one section of the deck. I’ll be finishing the cracks and then I’ll be working on filling all the little rotted pockets of wood where water has damaged the deck where nail holes are. I’ll be filling them with wood filler.