Mending the Fence

Here in Texas, we often have to mend our fences to keep the cattle from straying off. But the problem with mending fences is that the Indians keep sneaking up and shooting at us. They don’t quite seem to realize that it’s not polite to shoot at people when they are mending fences. But then I don’t have any cattle, so I’m not sure why I’m even mending my fence.

Actually, I do know why I am mending my fence. My wife has been bugging me for 3 or 4 years to do so. Of course, the fence that started leaning after a bad storm years ago bothered me, but not enough to actually do anything about it.

It’s often the case that we will put up with things that we aren’t happy about in our paint contracting business, rather than exert some effort to fix it. We’ll look at that leaning fence every day, and swear that we will fix it soon. And we never do.

Mending fences isn’t fun. I had to remove about 50 pickets and 3 posts. I had to re-dig post holes, set new posts, and then put the whole thing back together. It was about 90 out and the humidity was somewhere around 150%. I had to change my shirt 4 times. But it needed to be done, and I’m not one to put off unpleasant tasks. (Well, not for more than 4 years.)

I’m proud of my new fence. My cattle won’t be wandering off. More importantly, my wife won’t be asking me when I’m going to mend the fence. Like many unpleasant tasks in our business, I’m glad that it’s done and I appreciate the results. Sometimes we just need to roll up our sleeves and do it.

Unfortunately, my wife has some more tasks for me. But I still have a few more years to work on those.

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