On October 22, 2024, I'm fixing Laura's sister's fence. I realized that if I'd like to help out, and feel good about myself, and feel good about my relationship with her sister, I should do something useful: look around and see what she needs. Her fence fell down, and I'd successfully fixed my own fence a few days ago, so I'm spending a lot of time today fixing her wooden fence.
A truck full of wood and one 4x4 short
The one part fell in, and I went to Lowe's this morning to grab the materials. I filled my entire Toyota RAV4 up with a couple hundred dollars of wood for her fence. I got a bunch of 4x4s, a bunch of fence boards, and some crossbars as well. It looks like I'm one 4x4 short, which is rude, so I'll be working on this again tomorrow.
I'm amazed how much fun I'm having doing this, because I haven't done something just like this before. It's a little more challenging of a fence repair than mine was a few days ago. I'm having so much fun using this hammer drill to shoot the screws in, and I feel really satisfied that I'm doing meaningful work.
Why this kind of work matters to me
Sometimes I struggle with my videos online, and just being in my studio by myself, to feel like I'm really doing anything that matters. I know this matters, though, because this will let her have her dog out in her backyard and feel like, after these two storms we've had, that this one part of her house and her life is put together and doesn't need to be thought about anymore.
I'm also getting a lot of attention from everybody for this, which, for somebody who's realizing that I really love attention and I love being noticed, puts me in a position for lots of attention. My wife is very happy that I'm helping her sister out with this fence. My wife's mom comes over to talk to me for a little while, and she's happy I'm helping out.
Maybe a fencing side hustle
I tell her that, based on how this repair is going, I think I can help her — my wife's mom and dad — with their fence, which will be much more difficult than Laura's sister's fence. I think I can build them an entirely new fence, which should save them thousands of dollars.
I love that with this fence I have the pride of accomplishment. I walk my dogs past here, because my wife's sister just lives a couple of blocks down, so I often walk my dogs by her house. I love knowing that every time I look at this fence, I can feel satisfied that I repaired that — that I can see something I contributed that was valuable.
I'm listening to audiobooks and stand-up comedy while I'm doing this today, so this is giving me time to take new things and ideas in. I'm listening to some of Louis C.K.'s old stand-up comedy, and I'm just laughing like crazy, learning, and having a great time doing this. Maybe I'll start doing a little fencing side hustle, or something where I can fix other people's fencing here in my neighborhood. If you like these everyday diary moments, you can follow more of them in my Life playlist.