The weather here in La Conner is fickle. Yesterday the weather was crummy for outdoor activities but this morning there was bright sunshine and blue skies. Although tempted to spend the day fooling around, we made a painful decision and elected to do some maintenance that has been hiding behind a veil of procrastination.

Back in San Diego….uhh…in early April, Peggy and I tag-teamed the rear left corner wall intersection that was getting wonky from age and possible leaks. We took the corner apart, re-secured it with longer and better quality fasteners, epoxied some of the screw locations and re-assembled the corner in a long, torturous day of skinned knuckles and ladder work. However, right after we got the assembly back to where it was when it left the factory, we started visiting kids, shopping, going to the doctors and otherwise procrastinating on the final portion of the work – caulking. I am a true spastic with a tube of caulk and have been known to apply some of the ugliest beads of caulk extant.

The front right roof/wall/end cap corner of our beloved home had a hole that Peggy had noted not long after we noted some buckling of the cheesy panel that surrounds the kingpin and drop box assembly some six feet lower than the hole. The damage resembled a white hematoma growing from the panel which eventually cracked and let out the collected water. Peggy scampered up the ladder this afternoon and squeezed out some nice Sika sealant/caulk to plug the offender. We were headed for the back left wall intersection where there was extensive caulk repair needed and, since I was going to be working low on the exterior, I insisted I needed a chair to steady my horrible aim with the caulking gun. That was a fateful decision because when I tried to set up the folding chair at the work location, I stupidly allowed my right ring finger to wander where it shouldn’t and managed to slice a big chunk of flesh off the end of my digit. It bled copiously so I was not interested in really looking at it. The hydrogen peroxide came out and initial attempts to use Band-Aids were unsuccessful. There was still a flow of blood coming out faster than the bandages would stop so we took a break to make a more effective dam. After ruining a few fabrics and several bandage configurations, it quit dripping onto the floor, my socks and my shorts. There is now a big white cylinder of gauze and white tape on the end of my digit.

We finished up all the caulking, or attempted caulking, and called for cocktails.