Getting ‘The Shaft’

It started almost a year ago. During a conversation about long term plans Kate mentioned that the house hadn’t been painted on the inside for nearly 8 years. She wanted to upgrade, but said that she didn’t want to do anything until I got done with school. I graduated in May. Kate didn’t say anything, but in early August she informed me that she was going to paint Patrick and Samantha’s room. Soon she was painting Whitney and Bean’s room. When she started painting our room, I finally got the message.

Our little renovations have turned into a nice upgrade which includes ( or will include if we ever get done) new paint top to bottom, new light switches and outlets, a new ceiling fan, new skirts for the stairs, a fireplace, new carpet, new kitchen cabinets (last on the list) and a skylight in the upstairs hallway.

I must admit that the skylight was a project that was started over a year ago when the swamp cooler came off and we re-roofed. Instead of patching the roof and hallway, we installed the skylight and packed the inside where the vent is with some towels. But hey, better late than never. Grandpa Stretch and I framed the shaft, I insulated it, and we sheet rocked it and painted. And don’t ever say the word ‘shaft’ to Kate. She’ll start giggling and making sexual comments. She is not very mature. I would never act in this manner.

I am trying to do as much of the work as possible. I don’t want Kate to be the only one working hard for this upgrade. In order to pay for it all she has picked up extra shifts at work. She now works 7 PM to 7AM Friday night, goes to bed about 8AM on Saturday, gets up at 1 PM, and works 3 PM to 7 AM Sunday morning. A 12 hour shift followed by a 16 hour shift. I think she’s nuts, but as she points out it is better to be tired than house-poor.

I did take a break from applying latex to my shaft on Saturday to attend Patrick’s soccer game. His team won 8-5, which means that in their first three games his team has outscored their opponents 33-8. Very scintillating competition. Maybe Real Salt Lake should contact these boys for pointers on how to score. But Patrick’s team wasn’t my only favorite team to win on Saturday. The Utes faces an 11th ranked UCLA team, and were supposed to get smashed. It turns out that the Utes beat the tar out of the Bruins. And to make things even better, BYU lost to Tulsa in a game that they should have won. It was a good day.
But I digress. Of the 33 goals scored by Patrick’s team, he has scored zero. But that’s okay. He’s a team player. Last week on his turn to kick a goal kick, he chipped the ball, which sailed over all of the players on both teams, and rolled nearly the length of the field before anyone was able to catch up to it, His team mate only had to tap it once to score. So even though he isn’t scoring, he can say that he got an assist from a goal kick, which no one else on his team can say.
Patrick is on a team of five. His team mates are Marcos (who scores most of the goals), Canyon, Harley and Journey. I guess we just picked a boring name for Patrick…