Close Call

Well, I hadn't really told any of you about this. As a woodworker, I'm a little embarrassed. Back on May 10, I had a close call in the shop. It resulted in nine stitches in a finger, but it could have been a lot worse. Which is why I am calling it a "close call." I do have a finger that looks slightly different than it did before anything happened, but it is still in place and it still functions the way it is suppose to. With a nod to my Industrial Arts teachers, Russ and Bill, I will also tell you I wasn't doing anything identifiable as "WRONG." it was just one of those weird things that happens.

The idea of a "close call" seems to have a really different meaning at the moment, one we have all gotten somewhat used to and one I believe we will get more used to. I'm talking about those who are all around this disease we are all contending with. I've had about three of these so far. This is when someone you know and have been around either comes down with the disease, or is close enough to someone else that they need to be tested. With the move from summer to winter months, I fear these encounters won't decrease in number.

So, what do we do about this? I'll tell you what my behavior is going to be. In the time I have been in distribution/logistics, each time we had a close call, we took the time to look at the situation and decide what could have been done differently. Trust me, I've certainly done that with the situation in my shop. I stopped, and thought about what I could have done differently and what I can do going forward to make sure it doesn't happen again. I just don't like the pain and recovery period associated with any type of injury.

When we think about the corona virus, we have to take it very seriously. Not only is it taking lives, but in talking to friends, family, and co-workers who dealt with the disease personally, there seems to be the possibilities of true lasting consequences. This is really something to be avoided, so take the precautions you see necessary and I would encourage you to analyze any close calls you have, to make sure you can avoid the situation the next time. Hurt fingers heal and get better over time; sometimes lung function does not.

Enough of that. One other thing I wanted to talk about today is logistics around the holidays. I am sure most of you have seen this, but the major freight carriers are predicting an inability to stay caught up with packages over the next two months. The suggestion... ship early! This is one of those things I say to you today, but I'm really saying it out loud so I remind myself. Many of you know, particularly if you are family or a friend, I am horrible at planning ahead. Many times I have finished Christmas shopping on the 23rd or 24th of December. That looks like a bad plan this year, so I will need to plan differently.

I think I had let you know I found someone to take my sister's teardrop trailer to her. While this is true, we are struggling a little bit to get it done. Derek, who agreed to do the hauling, was first hit with a truck going down, then he was hit with COVID in his warehouse and had to shut down for a time. I hope we will see forward movement soon as I would like to get the trailer to my sister. I also have a couple of projects I've committed to this winter and need the space. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Finally, I would like to say think you to those who have found my Etsy store and placed orders. It is nice to know some of the things I make will be in your lives. If there is something you need and you believe it is in my skill set, do not hesitate to reach out. There may well be a possibility there.

Please continue to be careful and safe. I want everyone to be okay when we finally round the corner and find a way to deal with this terrible disease.

Resilience

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how brittle people are right now. I still believe this, but I also think it is important to talk about the flip side as often as we can. To me, the reverse of brittle is resilience. And resilience is what we need in the toughest of times. I may have told the story before, but it bears repeating. 

In the last days at Payless Cashways, we had a tendency to close ranks and work to take care of each other. We knew where we were going, we just didn't know how we were going to get there. In that environment, we were all pretty open about feelings and personal history. One friend talked about a period in his life when he and his family had to live in the haymow on a family farm. It would be very easy to think about how horrible living in a hay mow for any period of time could be. On the contrary, my friend told me how great the experience was. The family had each other, had a place to live and a whole big farm to play on. Sometimes it is just about looking at things the right way.

When I was working to finish college, one summer I had nothing, including a place to live. I ended up living in what would now be called a walk-in closet. There was enough room for a mattress and some space for personal items on the floor. Of course, there was plenty of room to hang things :). I went into the summer thinking I could survive anything, and this was just the next step in the journey. I came out of the summer having had the best time ever. The rest of the people living in the house weren't really people I knew well in the beginning, but we grew to know and appreciate each other. When I moved back to a more traditional living environment, I missed the craziness we had all enjoyed during the summer.

I know I repeat myself, but much of what we are going through right now is best handled with a good positive attitude. If you think about dealing with 2020 and all it has brought, those handling it the best know it will be a good story in a decade or so. Think about the number of stories that will begin with, Remember 2020? This will be our equivalent of those stories we heard when we were kids. You know the ones. About how our grandparents walking four miles to school, through deep snow, uphill both ways. Stories get bigger over time, and although it is hard to imagine, the stories about this year will get bigger as well. Okay, that is all I have to say about 2020 right now.

And now we wait. The teardrop trailer is complete, the transporter has been contacted and accepted the contract to haul it. The little final things are finished, and now we wait. 

I find the experience of completing a large, long-term project to be an interesting one. One I haven't necessarily experienced too often. The feeling that occurs when you are done with something which has taken time and work to complete. As I sit and think about it, it seems a little like finishing a college degree. There is the huge relief of a thing done, and hopefully done well, and at the same time you wonder what will change and how things will be different. Having this project going on in the shop over the last four years has always given me something to think about and something to talk to others about. I actually bought the trailer kit at the beginning of September 2016. This has actually been the length of an average undergraduate degree.

Where to next? When I started on the trailer I actually thought the next thing I would do in the Toybox was to rebuild a small tractor. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I  lost the desire to do mechanical work. I missed the window to learn it from someone I grew up around. I can watch enough on YouTube.

It has been interesting how the world has continued to fill up with woodworking projects for me to complete. There have been several library projects at this point, as well as work for people I know in the community. I have a project scheduled for this winter that will keep me busy for a while, and although I have joked about it, the time has come to get serious about finishing the kitchen cabinets for the house. That project has been on the back burner long enough. Time to get busy on it.

If you have any needs the Toybox might be able to help with, reach out and let me know. Have a great weekend.

Value

Last week, I had a couple of different discussions about the stuff we surround ourselves with to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Colored by what 2020 has been and continues to be, the conversations really made me think. One person is finishing a house right now and asked if I had advice for preparing for the move. Now, this made me think back. My family and I have made five major moves over the years. This may not really seem big, except we did all of them in a span of less than ten years. We got really good at moving. Anyway, when asked about moving, I said without question the most important thing to do is to sort and get rid of the items you won't need. Don't move items you really won't need. If you move it, that item will stay in your house for time, possibly years, to come. Now, with this simple advice comes some really big caveats.

First, if working with someone else to determine what should and should not be re-purposed, you will find "value" is incredibly subjective. Some items you couldn't even imagine being without are items the other person would throw in a garbage bag and carry to the curb. The same is true the other direction. I can tend to be somewhat overbearing in decision-making situations, and this tends to be one of those (for those of you who've known me for years, quit laughing, it's not funny). There is the potential for hurt feelings and loud voices or screams. I remember working through items in my mother's house with my sister. Before we were done, we were both in tears.

Second, what is the current perspective around things. For those of you who have not watched, the lines at thrift stores and Goodwill have been huge over the past months. With everyone at home more than usual, the current perspective is that now is a good time to eliminate useless items. Other things affecting current perspective are people's age and how they are playing for the long term. I don't want to make my children sort through any more than absolutely necessary when I am no longer here, so I try to deal with it now. The exception, of course, is the shop. Everything there is important and will all be wanted by someone down the line. I guess one or both of my children will have incredibly well set up shops at some time.

The third thing driving the valuation of items is how long you've had them. If something has been in your family/possession for fifty years, it has a greater value than something added to the house today. I know we could have gotten rid of much of the kids take-home work from school if we had done it then. But, load it in totes and move it five times over almost thirty years and it is much harder to get rid of something. We are there on some of the artwork the kids did when they were young. The most interesting thing for me was I remember running into those boxes of schoolwork of mine when we were taking care of mom's house. I hope there was not a gold brick hiding in one of the boxes as I opened them, looked to see what was in the box, and got rid of the whole box.

So, in the midst of all of this thought about things and what is the value, I have found a way to move our piano to someone where it will truly be valued. We bought this piano when we were in Kearney, MO from a traveling piano salesman, a story in and of itself and it worked wonderfully for the kids to take lessons and learn to play. I doubt it has been played in the last ten years. Anyway, the place I did the last library installation has been trying to figure out where to get a piano, and we were more than happy to offer it up. I love it when you can take an item which is not of great value to you anymore and move it to a place, or to people, that will love having it. This is the case here. Yeah, it just makes me smile.

Speaking of things being relocated, the time has finally come for the teardrop to make its way to Maine. This month, I have a transporter  picking it up to deliver it to Jaye and Karen. I am so excited and I hope they just love it. It has been a joy to build, and it will be nice to regain about a quarter of my Toybox. Of course I already have plans for the space. I am also looking for the next big project, so if you have something in mind, it may not be a bad time to reach out to me. I hope you are all having successful weeks, mine has been very good, and I hope the weekend also goes well for you.