8 x 10 oil on panel Jon too spent last week on his knees but I doubt that he was having as pleasant or interesting an experience if I were to judge by his mumbles and grunts. He was laying a new floor in the kitchen, having finally found vinyl planks which echo the tones of the century-old quarter-cut oak floors throughout the rest of the house. Buying it was the easy part. Nothing in our house is standard and the poor man had to fit the planking around such things as the four legs and two pipes of the hot-water radiator. From time to time he emerged to express his bitterness about the promotional YouTubes which show someone laying the product in jiffy-quick time in a perfectly empty and rectangular room. As usual, his work is superb. What it was not, nor ever can be, was fast, given the canvas he has been given to work on.
Part of the problem arose from the exposed glue strips on the edges of each plank. Theodore, El Long-Hair, was immediately banned from the kitchen. I don’t know why I laughed, because I was next. You try living without access to the kitchen. And therefore to the basement. To get to my canvases, I had to leave through the front door and reenter at the basement stairs. Now try it in pouring rain.
To reach the fridge, which now resided closer to the back-back-door (yes, I meant to say that), meant re-exiting and re-entering. Now this arrangement wasn’t too bad if you ignored the wet clothes. Being able to access stove, sink and fridge with nothing more than a pirouette is actually pretty convenient. So we ate reasonably well on Tuesday.
Wednesday was more of a challenge. The fridge now abutted the sink, door facing in, blocking the back-back-door. Both of us tired, stiff and hungry, we drove to Loblaws, where by mutual assent we abandoned all common sense and bought a BBQ chicken, a weird salad with suspiciously hard quinoa seeds and a huge pumpkin pie. Did I mention the container of squirty cream? This was assembled in the laundry tubs and delivered through a light rain to the TV room where we watched a movie and pretended we lived elsewhere. And there was wine.
Thursday was an exact repeat, less the aerosol whipped cream which had somehow emptied itself in the previous 24 hours.
It is now Labour Day and we are finally putting the room back together. Welcome back, Sweet Utensil Holder, from the living room! Hello Dolly Dog Food container from the dining room, and Where've-You-Been? garbage/compost/recycling container!!
So this post is in praise not only of Jon’s work ethic but of the invention of kitchens and the food that normally comes with them. It’s always a pleasure to paint food!
Part of the problem arose from the exposed glue strips on the edges of each plank. Theodore, El Long-Hair, was immediately banned from the kitchen. I don’t know why I laughed, because I was next. You try living without access to the kitchen. And therefore to the basement. To get to my canvases, I had to leave through the front door and reenter at the basement stairs. Now try it in pouring rain.
To reach the fridge, which now resided closer to the back-back-door (yes, I meant to say that), meant re-exiting and re-entering. Now this arrangement wasn’t too bad if you ignored the wet clothes. Being able to access stove, sink and fridge with nothing more than a pirouette is actually pretty convenient. So we ate reasonably well on Tuesday.
Wednesday was more of a challenge. The fridge now abutted the sink, door facing in, blocking the back-back-door. Both of us tired, stiff and hungry, we drove to Loblaws, where by mutual assent we abandoned all common sense and bought a BBQ chicken, a weird salad with suspiciously hard quinoa seeds and a huge pumpkin pie. Did I mention the container of squirty cream? This was assembled in the laundry tubs and delivered through a light rain to the TV room where we watched a movie and pretended we lived elsewhere. And there was wine.
Thursday was an exact repeat, less the aerosol whipped cream which had somehow emptied itself in the previous 24 hours.
It is now Labour Day and we are finally putting the room back together. Welcome back, Sweet Utensil Holder, from the living room! Hello Dolly Dog Food container from the dining room, and Where've-You-Been? garbage/compost/recycling container!!
So this post is in praise not only of Jon’s work ethic but of the invention of kitchens and the food that normally comes with them. It’s always a pleasure to paint food!
RSS Feed
