Painting and me.

I took the day off from work yesterday to continue painting the house. After 8 solid hours of painting, I still have an entire side to do. I had some seriously unrealistic expectations going into this project. I didn't count on the fact that the wood on our house is so dry from the Arizona sun, that it would be soaking up the paint like a sponge. It's taking a lot more paint than I anticipated, but thankfully we purchased more than we thought we would need. Another problem I encountered was the totally uselessness of the paint sprayer I purchased. The thing is a piece of junk. It spits, it sputters, and doesn't make the job any faster. I gave up on that thing after day 1. With my new, more realistic expectations, I expect to be finished in two more weekends. One weekend to get the first coat on the entire house, and the second to put the second coat on and do any touch up work.

Stephen King released a new book yesterday. Cell: A Novel. It's an end of the world style horror novel. I can't wait to read it. I love reading King's works, even the ones that stray from his traditional style, such as The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and The Dark Tower Series. The Stand is one of the best books ever written, and in my opinion can be placed alongside any of the classics. King's more recent stuff hasn't been as good as what he put out when he was younger, but considering the accident that nearly killed him, I'll take what I can get. It's not 3 novels a year anymore, more like 1 every three years. I'll miss the days when there are no more King novels to wait anxiously for, no more new material for me to read in a day or two, completely transfixed.

"F U Buddy"
I was driving to work this morning and this guy was riding my ass. The road I take in has stop signs every two blocks, so stopping and going, I'm feeling like this guy is going to plow into me. Eventually he tries to pass me for some reason. I was behind a truck, and we were both going faster than the posted speed limit. Anyway, his first attempt was unsuccesful because of oncoming traffic. His second attempt to pass me was successful, now he was stuck behind the truck. The guy, driving some kind of Ford, isn't stopping completely at the stop signs, more like breezing through.

I was a little annoyed that the guy felt the need to pass me. So was it wrong of me to be completely satisfied when, by the time we got to the freeway on-ramp, I was directly behind him? Was it a bit much for me to be completely overjoyed when I passed him on the freeway, going at a very reasonable speed? If it is, then I'm guilty...I may have even pumped my fist, I don't remember exactly. I hope he's blogging about how his impatience got him nowhere fast this morning, but I doubt it.