Have you ever noticed how much more quickly things come undone than get done?
Today we had a customer change his mind about the shoe mold in his addition. (I have been trying to learn the difference between toe kick, shoe mold, and baseboard. Just remember that toe mold is not something anyone wants, although I hear they have medicine for that now.) So even though one of the guys spent a whole day measuring the trim and cutting the angles to piece together this large room's trim, the customer didn't like the color once it was all in place. Nothing personal. The work was good. No one was mad.

I got to remove all the shoe mold and nip out the nails left in the trim or the baseboard. It's a good thing I had all that practice with the end nippers. I used a little flat bar to pry off all the trim. I'm sure it was a small fraction of the time it took to install.

Isn't that true of many things? I know, for example, that a big family dinner for a holiday takes days of planning and coordination, not to mention cooking and serving. But the actual meal is pretty much over in minutes. I have had the experience with weight loss too: months of diet and exercise undone over summer vacation. And how about relationships? There is so much invested in the initial stages and it can all come crashing in and end rather abruptly.

Anyway, I didn't mind pulling it up. I was glad I had toughened up my hand on the nippers before. Who needs delicate hand anyway? Not construction girls. Building stuff and tearing things up makes you tougher.