The Neverending Project
I stood at my kitchen door looking across the breezeway at the outside garage wall. Planning some light remodeling work prior to selling my home I figured I would replace a few of the cedar shingles and layer on some fresh gray paint. My house is a small Cape built back in 1948 and although the previous owners updated virtually everything, they never replaced the old cedar shingles that are now worn from several cold winters and hot summers. Considering the simplicity of such a project, I knew I would have to set aside the better part of the day, a whopping six hours or so, to complete the task (trip to Home Depot included). A six hour job would leave me just enough time to mow the lawn!While looking at the garage, I noticed some odd dirt stains appearing to leak down from behind the cedar shingles so I stepped out of the house and walked across the breezeway to get a closer look. Sure enough, it looked as though dirt, carried by rain, stained the shingles leading me to believe the breezeway roof must be leaking down between the shingled wall and the inner garage wall. I stepped very close to examine the stains and found tiny particles of sawdust clinging to the shingles like cobwebs. Suddenly my n
"Just thought I'd stop by and see how goes the battle! Can't stand them ants, I find them all over my yard every spring!" As quickly as he appeared he disappeared into my garage to take a look at my handy work. Thinking how the confines of the garage would only serve to amplify his questions I decided to continue painting outside. It became quiet inside the garage so I yelled to Ken to make sure he was all right and he answered, "Sure, I'm fine, but what's all this sawdust up on your ceiling rafters? eighbor, Ken, let out a yell from his driveway scaring me enough that I jumped up nearly knocking over my wife's prized collection of garden statuettes placed on a nearby table. Ken is an older man who is hard of hearing, although he'll tell you differently, and one of the nicest neighbors a person could have. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer physical effort he puts forth to yell hello to me each morning and how it always scared the hell out of me. The man is loud! This morning it wasn't hello he was yelling, instead I watched him for a few minutes as he walked around his front lawn stomping his feet. Not feeling too neighborly I stayed out of sight until Ken went back inside muttering something like, "Damn ants!" With the morning entertainment now over I returned to stare at the little sawdust formations for a few seconds realizing the apprehension growing within me when a black carpenter ant scurried out from behind one of the shingles. Remembering an old science fiction movie about giant man-eating ants ravaging the southwest,
Some common words found in the essay are:
Home Depot, Police Officer, Neverending Project, cedar shingles, carpenter ants, home depot, six project, hasty retreat, garage wall,
Approximate Word count = 1042
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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