It’s Wednesday.
With nothing heavy on my mind, besides the general bumps and potholes of life, I perused my pile of pics, hoping for some inspiration.
During the morning stroll/scroll, I realized that we’d all been talking about screen doors. Actually, we’ve been talking about the perfect slam and bounce of a proper screen door. That commentary came after I shared a photo of the new screen door we put on the outhouse at the camp in the woods.
You can go back through posts to find it, and it slaps perfectly.
What I did not share, and am about to, is that the junk screen doors on the cabin have finally given up the ghost. They were clearly built by heathens who want me to die of blood loss due to an insect infestation. They were junk from the beginning, but that’s the only door that the building supply store had in stock.
They DO NOT make them like they used to.
During the junk door’s first summer, my son’s dogs did a lot of damage. We patched it up, but it’s never been the same. This summer, the glued joints let go, and I’ve nailed it together using a couple of two-by-two pine remnants from some other project. It swings and keeps out only the fattest bugs. It’s the skinny ones who are hungry, so it’s a fail.
During this transitional period, the time when we simply keep going in and out of the door because there is nothing better, and I don’t want to buy a $99.00 pine piece of poop (triple P) that lasts only a year or so, my buddy Tommy offered to make me some screen doors. He’s an actual carpenter, and his quote was, “I specialize in screen doors; I’m from Aroostook County.”
“TC, these could be run over by a truck and still keep the bugs out,” is his slogan. We need to shorten it up and make it a bit catchier, but it sold me.
I don’t know why rural Americans are fixated on the “getting run over by a truck” analogy, but I think it works. It screams, literally, that these things are gonna last. I’m always up for buying things that can take a hit from a Freightliner and keep on humming.
I digress.
Tom has been facing some health challenges, but it was a project he offered to take on as he likes to stay busy. And he’s world-class in his work, always has been.
I knew they would be worth the wait. Last week, after their second coat of oil-based finish, he sent me the photos to prove that they were almost done.
In life, “almost done” is a stage where all involved breathe a little easier and smile, displaying some warmth and satisfaction that things are progressing.
There is a rumor that we might be putting them on the camp tomorrow, the first day of rain in a while. None of that matters.
Tommy said when he started, “Do you want them to last ten years or thirty years?”
I said, “Thirty.”
He said, “Okay.”
Note the sturdy grid at “dog level.” It’s an important feature of these screened accessories. It seems that head-butting the door is taught in puppy school.
Once we get them installed, I’ll be sure to post a video to prove that these squeak and slam as they should.
I’m pretty excited, in case you couldn’t tell.
It’s Wednesday in America, and the skinny bugs have been warned.
From the Jagged Edge of Mundane Maine, I remain,
TC
Thank you to the BuyMeACoffee Supporters, monthly and intermittent. I appreciate it. tc