Looking at a new railing, I see an orange brown smudge. Rust should not be there. Did it drop from somewhere else? There are rust spots on the concrete porch at my house where moisture has dripped down. There is nothing above this railing, however, so it may be that the rustproofing missed a spot. I'll have to look into this.

Since we moved into our house, there has been rust on the metal doors to the garage. Just a little at the bottom, but enough that the doors needed some attention. I found a way to match the paint colour and dug out a metal wire brush. Getting down to metal as best I could, I painted the lowest panel of the big door and the whole of the side door. They look much better, and if I did the job right, the metal is protected from being eaten away by rust.

As you can see, rust was a theme that week. I also painted the rusty spots on the truck. At the back corner of the bed, where the cap rubs, the paint gets worn off. That's been the case since the beginning. The last couple years, there is rust on the side panels under the second door. Last fall, I took the time to get down to good metal with two grades of sandpaper. It still came back on the driver's side. Now, I just keep it painted.

The truck has an electronic device that is supposed to prevent rust, and the mechanic says it is working. I've also been told that the guarantee does not apply until there is a hole. We've had a device like this on a couple cars where it seemed to work well. With the truck, it seems to be less effective, so I just keep covering the spots in hopes to prevent more.

The truck isn't being driven as much these days, so I had to take it in for a wheel repair. I forgot to retorque the wheel after a flat was fixed. I drove the truck so little that I did forget that I hadn't checked the tightness of the lug nuts.

But that's off track. The relevant point here is that before driving it to town, I drove it up and down the road using the brakes to make sure to wear off the rust build up on the brakes. That mechanic said they have a lot of people bringing in vehicles saying that the brakes are making a noise, and when they get the wheel off, they find rust.

When I took a pile of metal--an old bird feeder, wire, mesh, a screwdriver--to the recycling depot, there was a wheelbarrow with holes in the bin. I've done that before, letting the paint get scraped off by the stuff it carries, leaving it outside, neglecting it until the holes will leak what I try to carry and the metal is so weak it can't hold anything.

Rust eats metal. We've had vehicles with significant holes. We had a spray coating put on the bed of the truck so that sheep's hooves would not scratch it up and let it start to rust. On a previous truck, I've had brake lines rust. We used to have the barn roof painted regularly to keep it from rusting away. Steel feels like such a strong material, but oxygen, that invisible molecule in the air and water, does a good job of eating iron.

"Rusty" is a metaphor we use when we don't practice a skill. I used to play clarinet pretty well, but now I can't hold my lips right for more than ten minutes. Every winter, I promise myself to practice everyday. Every winter, that skill remains rusty.

People joke wryly that the golden years get pretty rusty. Joints creak like a rusty brake. Hair changes colour. I have spots on my skin that are as bumpy as rust build up on the garage door. I can't paint over those. I can't stop aging or prevent the wear and tear that living brings. Guess I'll just have to do what I can to protect the iron and steel my rusty body depends on.

Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway