Again And Again

The merchant ship I worked on in the sixties was a WW2 vintage C2 freighter. They built about 200 of them from 1940-45. It was 25 years old when I got on and I doubt it if it stayed in service for many more years. There was a team of four sailors that worked all the time chipping rust and painting. They had neat little air powered tools that were called "jitterbugs". The tool had four plungers and had the effect of having four hammers chipping at the same time. It took a while, but I got used to the irritating noise they made. At some point those four guys started at the fore end of the ship and slowly worked their way aft. When they got to the end, they just went back and started the process all over again. After 25 years, I don't know how much metal could have been left

I thought about those sailors yesterday as we were chipping rust and painting on a metal railing That ship and our property here had/have the same problem. The ocean .  We already worked on this railing a few years ago. I have  to chip and paint on the entry gate and our burglar bars every year. I don't like it , but I like being near the ocean . How  do they say? "It goes with the territory". I say , "Are we having fun yet?" At any rate life is about repetition. What would we do without it? What if we  had to mow the lawn ,paint the house , wash the car or walk the dog only  once. What would we do with our selves. The wouldn't be much left to do other than to sit around  and write a bunch of silly stories.