I’ve been painting our fence. It’s a wooden fence and it’s gotten very dry over the last couple of years. It looks great with a fresh coat of oil. I’ve been working for a couple of weeks and I’m not nearly done. This is not due to the size of the fence. It’s because I only do a couple of boards at a time. I squeeze it in when it’s completely convenient, the weather is perfect, and guilty feelings compel me to get out of the hammock. If you are an American male who is roughly my age, it is impossible to paint a fence without thinking about the Karate Kid. My childhood was spent pretending to paint fences because of that movie. “Wax on, wax off.” I also love Mark Twain. For half of the boards, I am the Karate Kid and for the other half, I pretend that I am Tom Sawyer. I keep hoping an unwitting neighbor will come by and pay me for the opportunity to paint my fence. So far that hasn’t happened.