The tin roof is on, four sheets. There is nary a shimmy to be found. The little shed feels sturdy. Now it’s on to the finishing work. Tin to trim. Blocks between the rafters. Backing on the ends. Interior walls. Painting. As projects go, this has gone. There’s the odd bulge and slight misalignments. But it’s not a luxury home in a high end subdivision.

I have wood-working friends who would be embarrassed to call this their own. I’ve seen their work and understand why. And maybe I should have done a little more research on how to build a shed with four oddly shaped cedar poles as corners before starting out, but I jumped right in and now here we are. There’s a scale in life of people who do and do it well, or mediocre, or even poorly. Writing songs, playing guitar, playing golf, hiking, running, decorating the house. You name it. I don’t know where I land in the wood-working continuum, middle to low, I imagine.

But, I like to do, and I aspire to do things well. And doing is a learning process. This shed is better than one I might have built twenty years ago. And I know my recent fence work outshines my earliest fence work. And I feel as though my songs are improving, and so it my writing, and so am I as a person. It’s all about learning. Changing. Doing better. Challenging yourself to study, to learn, to listen. I want to be the guy with thirty years of experience rather than the guy with one year of experience thirty times. I think it makes life a lot more interesting.