subtitle: the almost perfect weekend
it's not common. hardly ever happens. that combination of things that makes an almost perfect day. the type of day that mostly makes up for all the rest of the shit you have to wade through to get there. (no, get your mind out of the gutter - none of that wink, wink, nudge, nudge say no more. it was better than that). got me some personal time.
here is how it started. (stick around for the pictures at the bottom)
late friday afternoon, i get a call from my better half, N. is a 4-1/2 a common size she asks? (stop laughing - i said it had nothing to do with that). it's not rare, says i - but it's not very common either..... why? oh, dad was helping at the garage sale they're having at the community (the in-laws recently moved to one of those over 55 communities) and he noticed a couple planes - so he checked them out and bought them for you. he also picked up this little green block plane. total price - $4.00.
saturday, and sunday - i took a course. a couple of years ago, i bought a lathe. remembered it being fun in juniour high school shop. not sure why i bought it - the idea just kind of jumped into my head, and out i went to find one. picked up a half decent one used, with most of what i needed. proceeded to make nothing much more than a mess. and get frustrated. knew it was a practice thing - struggled on one project i needed a couple of matched handles (took 8 tries to get 2 half decent ones). and it's set up too low - so my back always got sore fast. stopped using it for much.
my wood supplier, offers some good courses. one of them is a woodturning course: the fundamentals of wood turning (based on mike darlow's book. actually, the guy who taught the course was taught by mike darlow himself. for those of you wondering, mike darlow is one of a few woodturners who have helped to revive the 'art' in recent years.) i've been wanting to take it for a couple years (especially every time i turn on the lathe and walk away frustrated). when their last course list arrived in the mail, N insisted i sign up for it.
i went from frustrated to awestruck in about 2-1/2 hours. with someone there to explain the theory, and then show you how it applies, and watch/correct your technique - major progress. theory on it's own just isn't the same.
so.... 7 guys (all of us with no woodturning experience). 7 lathes. unlimited coffee, doughnuts, and a steady stream of demos and projects was how i spend my weekend. and we ran late saturday. started early sunday and ran late again. think of it as an additional 2 1/2 hours for free. and what did i make?
a square stick of wood round. and then a little more work....... and voila!
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