Arch Fiasco

Taking things for granted is usually a mistake. Anymore, I'm what you might call The Clean-Up Carpenter, called in for specific jobs no one else can quite figure out or doesn't want to mess with. Archways and such. I'm in the addition, looking at what used to be the back wall of the house, they want two archways into the new Great Room, one on each side of the fireplace, there's about five feet of wall in each space. The space on the right terminates at half a window that should have been framed in before the addition was started, a really awkward situation, the left side looks straight forward, blank wall. I tackle the harder side first, the right, strip the diagonal sheathing, remove insulation, and, of course, there are wires in the wall and the studs are rough sawn, 3 and three-quarters inches wide, but at least, now, I can see what I'm dealing with, decide, since I'm already filthy and covered with fiberglass, to cut through the left-hand side. Rough sawn, diagonal, 1x8 pine, a zillion nails, siding nails, tar paper tacks, and the nails through the sheathing into the studs. I pull a few hundred because I have to make the long cuts with the circular saw, snap lines and make the cuts, start ripping out planks, something is wrong. I know that I'm looking at a wall partition that isn't supposed to be there, roll a smoke and look at things. Measure the back of the brick fireplace, measure from the far right wall, measure from the right hand window, take the measurements inside. I've never been inside the old living room and everyone has missed the fact the front of the fireplace brickwork is thirteen inches narrower than the back, they'd taken all measurements from the front and assumed the back was the same. This is a giant mistake and there were, actually, red flags, that someone should have noticed, I might have, probably would have, mute point. Fact is, there can't be an archway on the left, not enough room. This is what happens when you call in favors from every relative and friend and there isn't a general contractor or even an accurate scale drawing. I built my house without plans, but I usually worked alone and was always here, a different kettle of fish, and, besides, a simple freestanding house is easier than tying a complex addition onto an existing structure. From Iraq To Ruin, Sara called me, wondering about the phrase From Wrack to Ruin, which I had heard, but couldn't find, and after more than an hour with various dictionaries and books of quotations and finally phone calls, realized was actually Rack To Ruin, but it still didn't make any sense, not enough contrast between the terms, so back to the OED, and it is a RACK of (earliest) mutton or game, so the phrase means falling from having great eats to wondering where your next meal is coming from. Interesting that it is this word, or phrase, search, that rescues my day. I might not have built an arch but I found out what something meant. In my world that's good enough to take tomorrow off. Address the arch again on Monday, finish The Secret Garden set on Tuesday and Wednesday, install some lights, I'm thinking maybe Thursday we could collect a few more pieces for the show, I have a shopping list, it's like going to the mall. If your mall is the floodplain and the desired items are river sticks. We still need some things. Consider the stumps in the field. Consider the stumps, consider the field, consider all that background radiation, the bugs are really noisy tonight, I wonder if that means there might be an earthquake? A flood? A plague of locusts? I tire of worrying. I'd rather go fishing.