Painting season is here

Well, it's the most wonderful time of the year, again, here at HAWSEPIPER's Afloat Global HQ/Center for Studies of the New Hotness.

 Painting season.

 Steel tub, salt water. Rust. So, out comes the needle guns and the Bumblebee (a 3-fingered pneumatic hammer), but no growlers on here, thank God. Needle gunning and buzzing rust spots with the bumblebee before painting are quite enough, thank you.

 The HQ is looking good. This year we really came roaring out of the gates, painting-wise. It was such an insanely busy winter, we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves when the odd 1/2 day off starting showing up here and there, so we'd get out there with a brush and a bucket of last year's paint and frig around a bit, and it added up. Once the first pallet of this year's paint showed up, we started in on it, and have made great inroads.

   It's always a never-quite-finished project. I don't anticipate that we'll completely paint the entire vessel, but it's looking like we'll get a lot done, anyhow.