Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Notes from Lucio Blanco, Day 2

We brought about 150 gallons of paint with us. Home Depot donated them to our efforts. They were paint-mix rejects, attempts that for whatever reason some American homeowner didn’t want. The vast majority, of course, were varying shades of beige.

Ah, but then there were three or four cans of glorious green, and some dark red.

We took a great big bucket and some paint sticks, and stirred together what we had. Kids at play. Out of the smorgasbord, we created a yellowish beige, an antique rose, and a delicious pistachio green.

Then we asked the woman who would live in the second house what kind of color she wanted on the inside. She said she wanted a melon-ish color. The whole house, in fact, would resemble a melon. Green on the outside, orange on the inside. I began to have visions of James and the Giant Peach, with the singing dancing centipede.

Oops. We could make pink, or brown, or beige… but we didn’t have any orange.

A quick huddle eliminated most of our options, and we ended up sending some of us back over the border to purchase a gallon of glorious Tigger-riffic-bouncy-flouncy-fun orange. Mix it in, and sure enough...melon.

So much in this world is ugly. So much is out of our control. It was wonderful to see the future residents of the house with big happy grins. "Si. Es muy bonito!"