There Must Be A Secret

I hate caulking. No matter how hard I try, I make a mess of it.

Today, I was standing outside a restaurant with my co-workers, waiting in line to be seated, when I spied a construction worker inside the window of the neighboring building. I could tell that he was caulking the window seals, but I couldn't believe how easily he seemed to do it. One-handed, no less! Zoom, zoom--his arm smoothly and quickly went from one end of the window to the other. Then he repeated the same, swift movement as I visualized him smoothing the bead of caulk with his finger. Before I could breathe in and out, he was done and ready to move on to the next window.

I wanted to shout out, "Hey, down here! Show me how you do that! What's your secret?" But alas, the windows were the kind you can't even open. My colleagues would've pushed me out of the line if I'd done it anyway, pretending that I was some deranged person off her medication.

The only thing I can figure out is this: caulking must take lots and lots and lots of practice. And along with that, of course, must come lots and lots and lots of mistakes. That's how my learning curve goes, anyway. I learn better by mistake than by reading a book or watching a demo on TV. It's just unfortunate that I either have to redo the project to correct each mistake or live with the less-than-perfect results. So far, I've done a little of both. (OK, maybe a lot of both.)

I think this weekend I'll buy some cheap caulk and practice on scrap wood. We've got lots of that in the garage, and my husband wants to get rid of it anyway. Practice may not make perfect in my workshop, but it surely can't make things any worse.