The Nightmare After Christmas

Oh, it’s been a stressful and exhausting morning. We woke up traumatically early (OK, at 8 am) so we could take the mural to a local woodshop. It’s all painted and ready to be varnished, but the people who originally cut the wood panels cut them too big! Yeah… it’s about ¼ inch too big all around. No good. So the plan was to get it trimmed this morning so Marty could have enough time to (re)seal the edges and varnish the whole thing before we venture back to Calgary to install it. Way easier said than done, though—it’s not like a simple haircut where any mistakes will just grow back. Not. At. All.

Marty slept for maybe an hour last night—he was so nervous. Who can blame him, though? This mural measures 12 x 6 feet, and it’s taken him a whopping 150 hours of hard work to get it painted. I’m sure he had grim visions of the table saw ripping off a few layers of paint along with that cursed extra ¼ inch… just what we would need, eh?

Well, I’m happy to report that the mural emerged from the whole ordeal relatively unscathed! (Can’t say the same thing about Marty and I, though—our nerves are shot!) Aside from being a little dusty, the painting itself is fine—no chips or chunks were taken out, and everybody still has all of their fingers and such. We also managed to miss the rain when we transported the mural to the shop, so the as-of-yet unsealed paint job is still OK (I guess waking up early has its advantages…)

Marty will spend the next few days varnishing the panels (no rest for the wicked!), and when they are dry, we will be making the treacherous trek to Calgary (in our newly fixed up but still dodgy van) to get rid of it for good. Maybe I can duck into Make One for a bit while we’re there… the sale will be over, but I can always enjoy the company and a good cup of tea.