careless

I've always prided myself on being very careful and aware when working with the tools in my shop. Power saws and routers and sanders require a concentration that is unwavering if the operator is going to work safely and avoid injury. Yesterday I disobeyed that rule and now I'm paying for my lack of concentration.

I was using the router mounted on a router table -as I have many times before- to cut a dado in a piece of zebrawood. I was in a hurry and that should have thrown up a red flag for me. Never do anything with power tools if you are in a hurry. Shortcuts create bad cuts in both the wood and any fingers that get in the way. Normally I use push sticks and jigs that help to make the particular operation as safe and efficient as possible. But for some reason I must have felt invincible and overly sure of my ability to control the material and the cutter because I stupidly used just my fingers to hold the wood in place and then advance it through the router.

I don't know exactly what happened or how it happened because it happened to quickly for me to react. Somehow two of my fingers slipped into the path of the router bit and the result is what you can readily imagine. A considerable chunk of my right index finger was ripped open and a smaller rip was made in my middle finger faster than you can say "oops". Copius amounts of blood drippings made a trail from basement workshop to upstairs kitchen. I managed to fold the skin back into place and applied lots of pressure to stop the bleeding long enough to get a compression bandage in place. I felt secure enough with my firstaid efforts to refuse a trip to the hospital.

But the wound is still bleeding a bit today and will probably take awhile longer to stop. It is nearly impossible to avoid moving the finger and causing the wound to reopen and start bleeding again. It is all very annoying. Just typing this has caused more bloodshed. Remarkably enough there is no pain involved so far. I am going to have to immobilize the finger for a day or so to get the bleeding to stop completely. What a hassle. And all because I was in a hurry and got careless.

Maybe the worst part of all this is that I have to listen to Mary"s lectures and her insistence that I stay out of the workshop forever. Geez, it's not like I cut the finger off.

just a bit early

Every year it seems the xmas season ( notice I don’t Christianize the word) begins a bit earlier than the previous year. It is not at all unusual to find xmas decorations in the big retail stores crowding out the Halloween pumpkins and Thanksgiving turkeys by mid October. Here at home I have always held out until after Thanksgiving to put up our xmas decorations outside and inside, not only on principle but also so that we don’t get sick of looking at the glitz and glimmer and twinkling before the day we are supposed to be celebrating itself arrives.

So it is with a sense of shame (just a tiny bit) that I admit to jumping the gun on my own self imposed timeline for decorating the old homestead. The wreaths are hanging in the usual doors and windows, the garlands are wound around the railings and the lights are festooned on the trees and garlands. All that was accomplished yesterday, a beautiful sunshiny warm 60 degree day with hardly an inkling of the impending winter in the air. It was simply too nice a day to not to be outside doing something. So since the season is nearly upon us, I rook advantage of the choice weather and violated my own rule.

I make myself feel a little better about my early efforts by insisting that none of the lights get turned on until after Thanksgiving. So I have not completely gone over to the dark side. Please don’t think less of me.

football fever

I am a die hard Packers fan from way back. I grew up with the champion teams of the sixties and suffered through the mediocre teams of the 70’s and 80’s. The 90’s with Favre at quarterback reignited a passion for the team and were as exciting as it gets. The last few years with great expectations that were rarely met were both exciting and aggravating.

And this season has been an exercise in frustration given the great preseason and then the lousy play that was the first 8 games. Last week’s loss to the pathetic Bucs in Tampa Bay gave rise to the anger that comes from knowing the team is better than they were playing. I admit I jumped on the get-rid-of-the-coach bandwagon last week after that embarrassing loss.

Anticipation of today’s game against the Cowboys was pretty much restricted to hoping the Packers would put forth a respectable showing and keep the score under blowout status. I fully expected the Pack to lose by at least two touchdowns while showing at least some basic competence at the game. I hoped only that they would show some progress in correcting the penalty and sack problems that have plagued them every game this season.
I prayed that the O line would somehow figure out a way to keep Rogers upright and still breathing at the end of the game. I begged the football gods to show the D line the way to get to Romo and plant his ass on the sacred tundra of Lambeau. And I was not shy about begging for a special teams rebirth as a professional unit.

Well, my begging was not ignored. My beseeching of the football gods apparently worked. The team the Packers put on the field today was the near opposite of the team we’ve been seeing up until now. The defense played like an all pro team, pitching a near shutout. The offense came alive at the right times getting first downs when they were desperately needed. The special teams played as though they were special, not allowing the big play that has hurt them so in the past few games. And when they got into scoring position, the Pack scored.

The only bad thing about today’s excellent play is that it raises expectations for a repeat performance every game until the super bowl trophy is again back where it belongs. Unreasonable expectations? Not if you’re a Packers fan from way back.

another tragedy

It has taken a few days to absorb the senseless violence of last week’s murderous rampage at Ft. Hood. I’m not sure I will ever really understand how such a thing can happen.

What possible rational can justify such a heinous act. What twisted logic allows a man to calmly approach his fellow soldiers and start shooting at them with deadly intent?

I am not yet inured, and hope I never will be, to these acts of violence perpetrated by crazies who feel it acceptable to act out their thoughts of revenge against a society they feel has wronged them somehow. Columbine, Virginia Tech, and now Ft. Hood will forever be linked to the violent acts that bear their names. The name of the place where the next slaughter happens (and be sure that it will happen again) will join that list of tragic sites, adding to our collective consciousness that there is no longer any place that is truly safe.

I sincerely hope that we don’t ever become so accustomed to such horrible acts that we can easily shrug them off and go about our daily routines with only a passing notice. Outrage should always be our first reaction, and then grief for the victims and then grief for another deadly blow to our sense of humanity.

shop update

Time to get caught up with the shop output. I continue to work almost exclusively on the lathe, trying to become more and more competent and comfortable with it. I've tried a variety of techniques to familiarize myself with the many different possibilities of lathe work. It is an ongoing learning process that I find exciting and fulfilling.

This walnut bowl is 4.5" diameter and 4" deep. The slanted rim makes the interior more visible and accessible.



This is a simple little bowl made of maple with a bubinga stripe. It is about 6" diameter and 1" deep. It is rather elegant in its simplicity.



These are only a small example of the latest pieces to come out of the shop. If you want to see more, click on the "gallery" link in the side bar. I will post more here soon as well.

twin seasons

It’s been a dreary week. Cold wet and windy. Not a nice Autumn so far.
Have you ever noticed that this season is the only one with two names? Autumn and Fall. That’s probably because the season has a split personality.

I think of Autumn as embodying all the best of the season. Warm sunshiney days with gentile breezes rustling the brilliantly colored leaves. Pumpkins decorating front porches. Corn stalks gathered in bunches around lightposts. Autumn is a season of celebrating the harvest and slowly shutting down our outdoor activities in preparation for the coming Winter.

Fall, on the other hand is the evil twin. Temperatures fall precipitously off the cliff of Summer’s plateau. The nasty winds tear the turning leaves from their branches with wrenching force. The cold rains mat those leaves on the ground, smothering whatever lies beneath them. The flowers wilt and die from the too early frost. The days get shorter and shorter forcing us inside before we really want to be. Every now and then, Fall will shock us with a snow fall that is a harsh reminder to get the lawnmowers put away and the snowblowers gassed up.

With Autumn comes the optimistic days of Indian summer. Fall hammers us with the harsh, pessimistic realities of the northern winds.

Is it Summer yet?

workshop output

I haven't been sitting idle despite the fact that I have been negligent in posting here lately. I just seem to be too busy creating sawdust to take the time to keep caught up here. I have pictures to prove that I have been busy.

I've been doing bottles lately, using glued-up blanks made from the scraps of wood that are leftover from other projects. I hate wasting all those pieces that accumulate so I make blocks that then can be turned into something. In this case , bottles.

This bottle is capped with maple. I stands about 8" high and is made from maple and bubinga.




This piece is made from walnut with maple stripes. It is also about 8" high.




This 6" bottle is made from a variety of wood pieces slavaged from the scrap pile. It shows that there is always something that can be done with the leftovers besides trashing them.




There are quite a few more pieces coming out of the workshop. I will eventually get around to sharing them here, but if you can't wait, then click on "gallery" in the sidebar to get an up to date look at what I've been doing.