How many years does it take to make a good chinker?

Funny, but when I was in graduate school studying marriage and family therapy, I didn't realize so many things about my future.

I didn't know I wouldn't have a conventional life style. I never thought I wouldn't be the person who had the sticker of the two big people and two little people holding hands on the back of her van. Working five days a week seemed inevitable. Was there a west coast in 1987?

I romanticized living out in the country. Fire burning in a big stone fireplace. Dogs and cats running around willy nilly. Children sitting quietly doing homework. (Why I thought that, I have no idea. I was the one doing her homework on the hour long ride to school in the am and pm.) And the house, it would be a big log home.

Apparently, I have done something right with my life. Because I don't own a big friggin' log home....that I would have to caulk and chink the big a-- holes that appear in the logs.

O.K.? I like my work. After the first four hours of moving extension ladders, climbing up and down said ladders, refilling chinking guns, swearing at bee/wasp nests and smile graciously at every homeowner who walks by with their dog, chat chatting about the weather while I'm hanging by my toes and knees, holding a gun over my head that weighs more than my pt would approve of....I don't like it so much.

On the other hand, I am outside every day. And today was a beautiful sunny day. And, more importantly, none of the neighbors were around. All I heard were birds chirping and bees buzzing....and my ipod. A girl has to rock out a little during work.