The One About Dad And i Are X-treme Painters
with pictures!
August 12, 2004

hi kids,

i believe i've mentioned the job at the Holy House?

well. did i mention that it's 15 stories tall? the tallest building in Gadsden? hm? well it is. here, i'll show you.

dad is looking up at the building and thinking, "thank god i don't have to paint the top of that building. only complete fools would take on a task like that!"

it turns out the top of the building hasn't been painted in 400 years. and it looks just awful, especially if you look at the building from 2 blocks away. gosh, those poor old people, living in that giant building with the ugly, needs-to-be-painted-so-bad roof ledge.

if only we knew of some half-crazed Super Painters who could suck up their fear of heights and Paint! That! Roof! but where could we find these saps? the local bar! perfect!

dad was all for painting the roof. he was like, "hey! this'll be EASY!" i was all, "dad. i can't breathe."

apparently dad does not have that inherent response to Being Up High. he was all, "look! cool!" and leaning over the side. i was all, "stop! don't lean so far! ARGH! oxygen! gasp!"

after an hour i did loosen up. i guess you kinda get used to it. but still, leaning over and looking straight down will give you a case of the Heebie-Jeebies. capital HEE capital JEE.

those bars down there? those are benches.

"um, dad?" "yeah?" "did you lay the car keys on the ledge?" "yeah why?" "no reason." "..." "i'm gonna go down and uh, use the bathroom, k?"

dad painted the lower, harder to reach parts and i painted the easier top part. why did dad paint the tough parts? because he's a crazy manimal painter. he's there to Get The Job Done. i'm there to Make Sure He Doesn't Fall. and i do that by Saying The Prayers.

anyway, from the roof you can see like, 3 counties and both hospitals. and there's a surprisingly large amount of trees downtown. it's crazy.

metropolis! er. well no.
if you only knew how many of those buildings are churches.
and banks.
weird.

hey i know! let's play Where's Dad's Work Truck?

it looks like i stood on the ledge to take this picture.

anyway, we're almost finished with the roof.

while we were up there today i watched a firetruck leave the station (about 4 blocks away) i said, "hey dad! look! a firetruck!...oh. damn." cos the firetruck and the firemedics proceeded to pull into the Holy House parking lot. it happens pretty often. the old people, they get sick.
i was going to take a picture of the firetruck below us, but it seemed wrong.

the firetruck was parked out here.

see? downtown has lots of trees.

and one last picture of dad:

aiee! so dizzy!

anyway, sorry for all the pictures. but i was just so proud of us painting something so dangerous and crazy! i mean, usually it's just something boring like windows. and the danger is wasp nests and holly bushes. this painting is X-TREEM!!! DEATH DEFYING! NIGHTMARE INDUCING! now, when we close our eyes to sleep we see this

and jerk awake.
just part of the job, i guess.
the X-TREEM JOB!!!

next week's epitomb: cat: 1, jaimie:0

jaimie "X-TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!" pickle