Painting in the Patagonia, It's a breeze.

New places and cultures require some adjustment.

It was one of those rare Saturday mornings. A beautiful fall morning with blue sky and temps to the low 40’s with forecast to hit 50. An inspiration hit me while drinking my morning coffee. I would paint the old shed out back. The shed is a converted crate where we store anything that doesn’t fit anywhere else. It’s not big but it needed paint badly. The door had been unpainted for about a year so I figured before it rots off I would give it the coat of paint it needed. I gathered together my supplies; rollers, brush, roller pan, paint cans, screw driver and a couple of old plastic bags. I walked back to the shed and began my preparation for the great endeavor. I placed the bags under a paint can because you never know when the wind will blow here in the Patagonia. They call it the breeze here… The breeze can make the most seasoned sailor long to be a "landlubber". I picked up one quart of paint and immediately the wind gusted a little sending my plastic bags into the atmosphere. One of the bags landed about 20 seconds later in the neighbor’s yard and Rodolfo; their dog enjoyed grabbing it out of mid-air. Not to be deterred I continued on, but taking note that I needed to be a little more careful with the paint. I would not need the bags! I then opened the can of cream colored paint and began to pour the paint into the roller pan; the wind was constant but manageable although it did spackle my blue polar jacket that I have used for the last ten years. Finally I dipped the roller and began to paint. Everything was going pretty well when a gust of wind blew the two quart paint cans over sending them helter skelter crashing into the back wall. I was quite amazed that the roller pan did not move very much. I retrieved the cans placing them in a position that would not be exposed to the wind. Then an inspiration hit me, a precaution a moment of genius. That hole at the top end of the roller pan which is presumably to hang it up after you finish painting. I reasoned that if I took my trusty screwdriver and drove it through the hole and into the ground it would hold the pan in place. I continued painting; everything was going well, until I needed to open the shed door to paint the edges. The “breeze” caught the door and slammed it against the side of the shed slinging any loose paint to the winds. No problem, at least the wind would keep the door open while I painted. One thing I had not counted on was that the wind then sucked a box of Christmas ball decorations into the yard. So now I am holding a paint roller in one hand, holding the door with my foot and I am desperately trying to retrieve the Christmas balls which are now blowing everywhere. I finally get all the decorations back into the box and I just get the door closed on the shed when a gust of wind swept away everything lighter than what Arnold Schwarzenegger bench presses. Just before the roller pan was swept away… remember the screwdriver idea? The screwdriver acted like a pinion which allowed the paint roller pan to spin like a circus carousel making about three 180’s before taking flight and crashing into the back wall. I now realized that the great paint adventure was now a rescue operation. The wind now was a constant 40 miles an hour with gust much higher. I managed to get all the paint supplies together I now realized also that with the wind chill I had lost all feeling in my hands. I retreated around the house to the carport and put my supplies away. Turning around, one of the bags I had lost early on in the process landed at my feet. One positive thing is that the paint dried really fast! I think next time an inspiration like this hits me I will just reach for another cup of coffee.

Mike