The Chairman

The little wall desk, that I built a last month, needed a place to sit, so I knocked out this little chair/stepladder the other day. It was, supposedly, invented by Benjamin Franklin. I found a set of plans online. Since Wifey is, somewhat, vertically challenged, it will come in handy and we can get rid of the aluminum stepladder, that takes up valuable room in the pantry.

Not All Gifts Are Free

It just seems that the reality of life and aging keeps poking its ugly head up. My uncle Parker has been in a nursing home for about a year now and will not be coming home. He had become a woodworker in his retirement. I mentioned to his son, my cousin, that when the time came to have a garage sale, to be sure to notify me as I would like to have first shot at some of his tools. He told me, that after some thought, that I could come and take as much or as little as I wanted, So, last weekend I hitched up the trailer, which I acquired as a result of my brother's passing, and headed south to San Diego. I picked up a small lathe, a bandsaw, a table saw, a 12 inch disc sander, a router (that makes 6 or 7 of them), a palm sander, some miscellaneous hand tools and supplies and a bunch of nice burl and pieces of various exotic woods. I will try to think of him every time I use one of them. He is a member of the Greatest Generation. He served aboard the USS Intrepid, a carrier, and was involved in a number of battles in the Pacific. They were hit by a kamikaze plane and he still has several pieces of the plane. He married my Aunt, raised two kids, lost his wife and daughter too soon and, from all evidence, lived a typical, hard working life that was the hallmark of his generation. There is so much more that I could write, but I don't want to make this an obituary. He is still with us, though his memory is very foggy. It seems such a shame that a person so often lives, loves, does the best that he can and looses it all in the end. I guess the blessing is, that he doesn't miss what he cannot remember. Still seems like a big gyp.

Havin' A Blast

I sandblasted the glass today. Not without some drama. First, my compressor conked out a few weeks ago. I got real lucky and found a new pump on Craigslist for 55 bucks. Its a 3 cylinder 2 stage unit, brand new Speedair. It probably retailed for 300 dollars. I installed it and it worked great. Then, the other day, the pressure switch went south. So, I treked down to Grainger yesterday and picked up a new one. All went well, so it's finally time to blast. The entire thing took about 15 minutes. After I peeled off the foil tape and wiped it down, I stuck it in the door for a look see. Not too bad.