One might ask, “Why are Josh and Damascene putting new doors in the barn in the middle of winter?”
I am a chucker. In general, I don’t like hanging on to lots of stuff “in case I might need it someday.” I am sure that causes several of you readers to shudder and tighten your grasp on those random cords that you have no idea what go to, all your various computer and iPhone boxes, and those odd shaped pieces of plywood stacked in your garage. But for me, maybe it is because my “collector” dad had sheds full of parts and pieces of vehicles he didn’t own, vintage tools and oddities he had picked up, vehicles for parts that didn’t run, and all sorts of stuff that I could never figure out why he kept. So, I became the opposite in many ways.
However, working in operations at a ministry for the past nearly 24 years, I do very much believe in repurposing and reusing when it can be done realistically. Over the years, we have pulled apart walls, floors, steel siding, doors, windows, and all other manner of things that have been reused and repurposed in the ongoing remodeling of The Camp. A few years ago, a local church was being torn down and they invited other ministries to come and take whatever they needed. I was able to get a whole pile of commercial doors, door closers, and other materials that are now a part of The Camp. Just the other day, we needed some storage for the House of Prayer worship team members, and we had these beat up old lockers. With some plywood and trim, I was able to fix them up to looking pretty nice for just a few bucks!
All that being said, I still get rid of a whole bunch of stuff on the regular. I was plowing snow yesterday after a fresh 4” of lake effect was dumped on us. I had just about finished and was cleaning up on little area around some cars and the barn. As I was focusing on the front of the truck and the plow so as not to hit the vehicle to my left, I was slowly backing up and forgot about the right rear corner of the truck which proceeded to hit the double glass doors to the barn with a thud and a crunch. Oh. My. Dog. I did not just do that. (Ok that is the nice version of what I said.) Anyway, I pretty much destroyed the left side door and messed up the right side significantly, as well as ripping part of the frame out of the wall. Sigh. As I looked at the mangled door, I touched it and instantly the glass just shattered into a bazillion pieces all over the snow. So I put up some plastic and walked inside because I saw that my good friend Damascene was there. We reconvened at 1pm, and did some emergency surgery — removing the old doors and voila! installing another set of doors. After we had taken apart the old prayer room, I had stored the old double doors in the barn, “in case I might need them.” Yup. You read that correctly. So here we are. We took down the siding and made the hole a few inches larger on the side and top to accommodate the new doors, and by 5pm we were cleaning up.
“Inattentional blindness is a cognitive phenomenon where a person fails to notice an unexpected, fully visible object or event because their attention is intensely focused on another task. It stems from limited attentional capacity, not visual impairment, and can cause people to miss significant details in their environment.” — American Psychological Association
I was reading about inattentional blindness — where you are so focused on one thing, you miss something obvious entirely. There’s a whole interesting rabbit trail to be had here, but it was pretty fascinating to read! It’s funny because late that night, several of us were talking, and they observed and heard others say, “Why are Josh and Damascene putting new doors in the barn in the middle of winter?” Why indeed? Well, you know, I had nothing else to do, so hey, let’s just put some doors in the barn! Thankfully, it was a 34º day and not bitter cold, but it was kind of hilarious that people thought I was just putting new doors in the barn randomly. That being said, we do have a track record of doing outdoor work at odd times. We tore off and re-shingled half the roof at the end of January one year. We installed skylights in the kitchen and living room in the middle of February. So you know, you have to take things as they come, even when unplanned or caused by backing a truck into a building.
Accidents happen — it is inevitable. When I was a kid we used to throw things and taunt each other with, “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” That is not true of me. Definitely hit that barn, haha! For real though, I am grateful for a good friend like Damascene to come alongside and make a very unplanned day much better.