It never fails.

Friday's 5-Day forecast said things were going to be sunny and warm until Tuesday.

Fool that I am, I believed the prognosticators and thus planned to stain my deck which had been basking in sunshine since last Tuesday.

Friday I washed the deck with a cleaning solution.

Saturday--a lovely day--I had to let the deck dry again.

Sunday, with a forecast of 30% chance of widely scattered showers, and after going to Knights' of Columbus breakfast at Holy Child (and winning the 50-50!), I started staining the rails and balusters. Since the deck is 10+ feet in the air, that means I had to use the ladder. A lot. Up and down at least 10 times just to get the outside of the 1-1/2 square wooden balusters and the outside of the 2x4 rail and 2X6 top plate. I put in a good 6 hours stopping only when I had to move the ladder to drink a half quart of water.
As luck would have it, around 5:30 PM the white, puffy cumulus clouds suddenly turned nasty looking. I wrapped up my work at 6:30 PM and put everything away. While washing the brown stain off my hands and forearms (it's impossible NOT to get some on you), I heard the tell-tale sounds of rain drops falling on the tree leaves and then it grew louder.

It rained hard enough that some of the stain ran. Not a lot, but some. Being a water repellant stain, I'm not sure trying a second coat without washing/sanding will do me any good. At least the honey yellow from the last staining has been covered.

I've still got half the balusters and rails to go as well as all the deck floor. After a nice drying day, the sky has darkened again and there's the sound of some distant thunder. If we do get rain tonight--and the forecasters give us a 60% chance--then I can't stain tomorrow (Tuesday). Thursday afternoon we take our Winnebago on its maiden voyage--for us, anyway--and head to West Wareham, Mass. for a clambake with Bruce and Sue. We won't be home until late Monday.

Naturally, the forecasters predict nothing but sunshine until...wait for it...next Tuesday. How accurate are they? Who knows? While my knees and back help a little in predicting weather conditions, they are fickle. They hurt when it's nice out too because that's when I'm most active and most likely to over extend myself. Therefore, I'm looking into how to cultivate the growth of bunions.

Oh, and next time I'm getting a Trex deck and wrought iron rails and balusters.