The man sits in a chair. The chair is brown. The man holds a remote. The remote is black. The man pushes a button on the remote. The image on the television screen stops.

The image shows a house. The house has a new wall. The wall is covered in wood. The wood is cedar. The cedar has a light finish. The finish makes the wood look orange in the sun. The sun is in the corner of the screen. The show is over. The credits roll over the orange wood. The man looks at the orange wood. The man wants the orange wood on his own house.

The cedar is beautiful on day four. The camera records the beauty. The camera does not record the rain. The camera does not record the heat. The camera does not record the movement of the wood.

The Anatomy of Gray

Wood is a living material. Wood has cells. Wood has lignin. Lignin is the glue. The sun hits the wood. The sun has ultraviolet rays. The ultraviolet rays break the lignin.

When the lignin breaks, the wood changes. The orange color goes away. The wood turns gray. The gray color is the color of dead cells. The television show does not show the dead cells. The television show ends at the reveal. The lie is that the wall will stay orange.

The Cost of a Small Mistake

I once built a fence. I built the fence with pine. I bought the pine at a store. I bought the wrong screws. I bought zinc screws. I did not buy stainless steel screws.

The rain hit the fence. The rain hit the zinc screws. The zinc reacted with the pine. Black streaks ran down the pine. The black streaks looked like tears. I had to sand the pine. I had to replace the screws. I spent $142 on new screws. I spent eight hours on the ladder. I made a mistake. The mistake was small. The result of the mistake was large.

The television show makes no mistakes. The television show uses the right light. The television show uses the right angle. The television show uses music. The music makes the man feel good. The man feels like he can have the house on the screen. The man forgets about the maintenance. The man forgets about the oil. The man forgets about the graying of the cells.

The man changed a smoke detector battery at two in the morning. The smoke detector made a noise. The noise was a chirp. The chirp was loud. The man had to find a ladder. The man found the ladder in the garage. The man climbed the ladder. The man opened the plastic door on the smoke detector.

The battery was a nine-volt battery. The man put a new battery in the smoke detector. The man closed the plastic door. The man went back to bed. The man could not sleep. The man thought about maintenance. Maintenance is the thing people do not talk about.

Oil and Time

The wood wall on the television requires maintenance. The wood wall requires oil every eighteen months. The oil costs money. The oil takes time. If the man does not oil the wood, the wood will crack. The wood will warp. The wood will pull away from the nails.

The television show does not show the man on a ladder. The television show does not show the man buying oil. The television show shows the man smiling. The man in the show is happy because the work is done. The work is never done.

I am a seed analyst. I look at seeds. Seeds have a blueprint. The blueprint tells the seed how to grow. The blueprint tells the seed when to die. Wood is a seed that has already grown.

Wood is a seed that is in the process of dying. When you nail wood to a house, you are nailing a dying thing to a living thing. The house is the living thing because people are inside. The people breathe. The people cook. The people create moisture. The moisture goes into the wood. The wood swells. The wood shrinks.

Vibes vs. Structure

The man on the television show does not talk about moisture. The man on the television show talks about “vibe.” He talks about “modern organic.” He talks about “curb appeal.” These words are not structural words. These words are entertainment words.

A structural word is “hydrostatic pressure.” A structural word is “thermal expansion.” The television show does not use structural words. Structural words do not sell commercials for trucks or insurance.

If the man buys the wood, he buys a job. He buys the job of being a caretaker. He will spend $3,420 every three years to keep the orange color. If he does not spend the money, the house will look old. It will not look “modern organic.” It will look tired.

The Composite Reality

The composite material is different. The composite material is an engineered solution. The clock stops. The color is locked in the plastic. The strength is locked in the fiber. The man can sit in his chair.

Professional contractors use

Exterior Cladding

to solve the problem of the second year. The second year is when the television show is gone. The second year is when the reality begins.

The composite stays the same color. The composite does not require oil. The composite does not require a ladder at two in the morning. The man does not have to worry about the sun. The sun can shine for twelve hours a day. The composite will not turn gray.

The man pushes play. The show continues. The people on the screen hug. They are happy with the house. They do not know about the wood. They do not know about the lignin. They do not know about the gray cells.

Most people live in the long life. Most people live in the years after the reveal. The years after the reveal are the years that matter. The man realizes this. The man looks at his own house. His house has old siding. The siding is peeling. The siding is failing.

The man needs a new wall. The man does not want a television wall. The man wants a real wall. A real wall lasts for twenty-seven years. A real wall does not change when the rain falls. It is a shield.

A Lesson Across the Street

The man turns off the television. The room is dark. The only light comes from the street. The man thinks about the smoke detector. The man thinks about the battery. He is glad he changed the battery.

The man goes to the kitchen. He gets a glass of water. He looks out the window. He sees the neighbor’s house. The neighbor has a wood wall. The wall was built two years ago. The wall is starting to turn gray. The gray starts at the bottom. The gray moves up the wall.

The neighbor is not on a television show. The neighbor is a man with a gray wall. The man with the water glass understands now. He understands that the television show is a story. The story has an ending. The house does not have an ending. The house goes on. The material must go on too.

Silent Economics

The man looks at the price of the composite. The price is higher than the price of the pine. The price is $12.40 more per board. The man does calculations. He uses a pencil. He uses a piece of paper. The paper has lines.

The man adds the cost of the oil. He adds the cost of the labor. He adds the cost of his own time. The composite is cheaper. The composite is cheaper because it does not ask for anything. The composite is silent.

The man puts the glass in the sink. He goes to the bedroom. He lies down. He thinks about the orange wood. He thinks about the gray wood. He thinks about the composite.

He chooses the thing that stays the same. He chooses the reality over the reveal. He closes his eyes. He sleeps. The house is quiet. The walls are still. The sun will come up in five hours. The sun will hit the walls. The walls will be ready.