My years spent painting were accompanied by hundreds of hours of listening to Bob Edwards on Morning Edition, and Terri Gross on Fresh Air.  When not being a news junkie, I'd lose myself in audio books, catching up on the titles that always seemed just a bit too dry to read.

Amazing, the distractive value War and Peace has when rolling walls and sanding trim hour after hour.

My other rejuvenation was vacuuming.  Nothing is so spiritually fulfilling as cleaning up and keeping a work area spic and span.  My Quaker past life reincarnated and enabled via a Godless electric machine, sucking up dust and debris.  My passion for this task was heightened when HEPA filters showed up and all of sudden vacuuming the very air was possible.  Next came room air cleaners, removing every dust mote and then, hallelujah!,  activated charcoal pre-filters which would capture airborne fumes, odors and gases. 

So there's your image, the neuroses of a young man on full display, engaged in an ancient craft, but surrounded by the modern gadgets that represent the reality of germ theory, run amok.

Conversation with a Catchlight employee recently revealed that even these draconian steps to keep a work area clean can strike some clients as inadequate.  Dust and fume concerns of such concern, the use of non-toxic paint stripper and Green Seal paints, HEPA filters, and new vacuum bags still fall short.

A yeoman effort, executed with care, diligence, and forethought. And yet, back to the drawing board we go.

Suggestions, anyone?

Nigel Costolloe