Hammer Time, Part Deux

After my extensive and slightly dangerous sledge-fest with the laundry room floor Saturday, I spent about six hours yesterday afternoon going after the residual globs and patches of cement with a hammer and chisel.

If you've never tried this exercise in home improvement, I heartily recommend it. It is.......character-building.

Physically, my hands and forearms are still killing me, frozen into a couple of claws what with all that grasping of tools. I feel like that Seinfeld character who lost his hand-modelling gig because he was no longer master of his domain.

Mentally, I am now of the opinion that anybody who must spend his days banging away at rock with a hammer - archeologists, geologists, sculptors - must eventually go quite mad. As I say, I was only at it about six hours or so, but despite all my attempts to improve upon the tedium by creating interesting tapping rhythms and planning out my assault on each new formation to maximize my effectiveness, it wasn't long before I was ready to go spare.

To add insult to injury, in the middle of my work the Four Year Old suddenly appeared at the door and announced that I was making too much noise. This from a gel who herself is audible not only from one end of the house to the other, but also in several adjacent counties. If she'd been just a little bit closer, I'd probably have whacked her.

Anyhoo, after all the toil, I'm happy to say that the floor was finally cleared and is all nice and ready for our handyman to finish laying tile, which I hope he is doing even as I type.

Oh, one other thing - I meant to dispel any misimpressions readers might have got from my Saturday post concerning the Missus' role in ordering me to do this work. I was only kidding, of course. It needed to be done and I, of course, volunteered. In fact, the Missus is one of the sweetest and most considerate people in the world, who wouldn't dream of asking me to do something I didn't want to.

No really, I mean it. And I'm saying so because I love her, not because she read my earlier post and gave me the Evil Eye over it.

UPDATE: Cheesy?