I just finished listening to this graduation address by Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts. Graduation speeches are so often awful – the fine ones actually do inspire. While it takes about 20 minutes, it's well worth a listen.

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

After listening to it, I realized that today I did a bit of what he talked about. There was a job to do and I pretended like I could do it. And I did. I got way up on the ladder and painted the peak of the garage wall. Four times – 1st and 2nd coat of trim paint, 1st and 2nd coat of wall paint.

I just don't get that far off the ground. Never had. Never thought I would. But I really wanted to finish this wall and if it was going to happen I was going to have to do it. So I did. I got good at using the aluminum extension ladder. I figured out how to hold onto the ladder AND to paint. I feel sort of empowered! 

Here's the before shot:

And after…

Andrew Bethany, our Scottish garage door repairman is making the garage doors move more smoothly. Yay – this wall is done! You can see the entry to the right. Here's the before of that area:

And after… The final touch, the light by the door, is on and working.

Now that I am able to get up high on the extension ladder I've got my job lined up for tomorrow. In the photo above, do you see the brick wall to the right? There's wood trim up there that needs to be scraped and painted. On two sides of the house. I can do it!

Steve and Chris and Mark, a friend, got the french doors set in in the back wall:

I've already painted the wall to the left. That is the only siding that is staying put. And they finished the wall that they started on Day 2 or 3.

Believe it or not, we stopped work today at noon +/- a few minutes. As I look at the pictures it seems amazing but each job was not that time consuming. For my part, I spent as much time fooling with the ladder and washing my brush out between coats as I did painting!