“ Squeak…Squeak…Squeak “

Sometimes I wonder if there is “anything I can do without thinking”…you know, the  things you’ve done enough times that you do them automatically. Certainly I don’t have to brush my teeth by the numbers or start my car with a list of instructions, or ask for help in putting water in the reservoir of my CPAP machine….. hmmmm …. well, never mind.

Anyway, I had another episode of “Mr. Handy Andy Falls In The Ditch”. Yes, I was planning to do something I’ve done before… “tidy up” one of our favorite rocking chairs to give to our daughter who is having a baby. All I needed to do was some “spot staining” of the wood and fix a little squeak… just tidy things up. At the same time, my assistant “Miss Birdie”  was handling getting a new cushion made for the chair.  Hey, let’s knock this thing out….. no problemo. 

Okay, the initial re-staining of the arms seemed to go well…until it dried and didn’t match the rest of the chair…too red. Gee, let it dry overnight, it will look better in the morning…. NOT…still too red.  So, with some more sanding and applying a different stain that I had on hand … the color was coming in line. Okay, now we’re talking… the “Old Master” solving the problem. The next day, it feels a little tacky…give it another day…still tacky. Rats, I think I put oil base stain over a water base stain. Hey no problemo… I’ll just sand it down and get some water base stain. Ok, things are looking up…the stain is starting to blend nicely. Let’s put on a nice satin polyurethane finish…we’re rounding the final curve of the race. The next day, the finish looks dull and flat…… wooooooo. Hey no problemo… let’s get a small container of water base “semi-gloss” polyurethane. I put it on and things are finally looking up…another coat and it’s looking pretty good…very nice. Finally I can see the end. The project is not perfect, but it looks very good. We get the new cushion put it on and it looks very nice.

In the back of my mind as we’re finishing up the project, I remember the little squeak. When you sit in the chair and begin to rock, you hear a “squeak…squeak…squeak”. When I had tightened things up and sprayed some WD40 on it, it seems that the squeak had diminished…but now it seems to be back…..auuuuugh. 

Well, we gave the chair to our daughter today at her baby shower. She is due in 6 weeks with her first baby…. “ yes, our baby is having a baby”. She loves the chair, but “ what’s that little noise”. I’m going to give her a couple of days to see if the squeak disappears or maybe she finds the squeak comforting.  If not, the “Old Master…Mr. Handy Andy” will be back on the case and we will take that squeak down. Stay tuned to this saga… I’m telling you right now, “it’s me or the squeak”…. there’s not enough room in this town for both of us. And for those of you who remember some previous episodes  of “Mr Handy Andy Falls In The Ditch”, I will be bringing St. Joseph to the next battle, asking for his intercession. Stay tuned.