Year 20, Week 49, Day one (week 1092)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-24-20 Thursday
76 degrees low, 82 high, early morning clouds tinkled, then mostly cloudy the rest of the day. This weekend is predicted to be an arctic blast where the temps will get well below the South Florida 56 degree frost temperatures. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I had stopped at Jo-Anne’s Cloth World and went through all the craft sections of the stores. I find that the fabric section is pretty but I am avoiding learning how to sew. It could be a future hobby but not now, not even close.
I got a whole bunch of ideas while wandering through the store. I guess I need to retire to be able to get involved in some of those ideas. Of course, I learned from my dad, that there is never enough time for all your projects. He spend most of his time, from dawn to dusk, carving or working clay. He still did not have enough time for all he wanted to do.
My main purpose of going to Jo-Anne’s was to get some cotton yarn so I could make a dishcloth for my mom. I have almost literally, a lifetime supply of yarn, nearly all acrylic, a tiny bit of wool, but for some reason, no cotton (I did a lot of dish cloths over the years) . Like many other hobbies, I don’t have time to do much crochet.
In every hobby I have experienced, when you decide on your project, and then look at your stockpile of materials, you never have what you need. If you look at your stockpile first, and then decide your project, you have more materials than you can possibly ever use. Cotton is my favorite yarn but I never have much of it at any one time. Most of my yarn is from yard sales and they were unloading acrylic.
My main purpose of learning crochet was to do stuffed animals (stuffies) I found, though, one needs to have a lot of setup, with materials all over the place in order to effectively stuff the animals. I can’t do that at this time. I am working on creating a space but I don’t have time for that project either.
I also picked up a different glue for the aluminum flowers. I learned you have to glue the foil to the stem and also to itself. Super glue or a hot glue gun would work great.
We had an office party (handed out a bunch of my cards to office people) and I ended up bringing home a large tin of Potato salad. It had a thick foil lid, then a thin foil lid beneath it. I gave it all to mom. I then asked mom for the thick foil lid for my foil flowers.
I cut strips of foil from the lid and started working. I made six flowers, most were ugly. I touched the edges of the foil with paint. Not well done. The paint I was using was not sticking or covering well. I was after a transparent color, but really needed to use spray paint rather than some brush paint. I also really should have added the color before forming the flowers. I did get a couple that will be keepers, at least until I get better ones. I am not talking about the process I am using for making the foil flowers. None are working as well as I had hoped. A lot of it is not taking the time to do it right....
I worked fairly late in the day and then packed up and after talking to mom for a while, went home.
Year 20, Week 49, Day one (week 1092)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-25-20 Friday (Christmas)
50 degrees low, 57 high, from partly cloudy, a few clouds, to fair. Because it got below the 56 degree frost temperature, some of the small lakes and canals froze over. It is supposed to get into the 40s. I might go to the beach and see the great ice shelf that should be forming. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I got a very slow start in the morning. I spent time on the computer in the morning and finally went over to Mom’s for lunch. I started crochet on a dish cloth for mom using a light green yarn with splotches of dark green. I got several rows done in a few quick sessions.
Later in the day, we went to my nephew’s house for Christmas. I worked on the dish cloth rather than play games on my tablet and before we were to leave, I handed the dish cloth to my mom. I then made a couple rows for the next dishcloth from the same yarn.
I handed out my painted cards to family, and gave both families (nephew and brother) a set of the newest ornaments. I allowed the kids pick out an ornament for themselves. One picked an Orca and the other a Dolphin. I will let them choose an ornament every year from now on. My nephew’s wife said my card is the best she has seen from me, and she really loved the ornaments.
For the adults, gift cards to stores went all over the place. Because Mom rode with me, I got Mom a air fryer/pressure cooker unit, giving it to her at her house. She has read the instructions a few times. There is a big learning curve on how to use it.
The baby was all over the place, not wanting to eat, not wanting to be in the high chair to eat, just keeping going, then suddenly she conked out. Her mom THEN finally got a chance to eat.
It was past my bed time when I got back, and it was already cooling off.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 20, Week 49, Day one (week 1092)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-26-20 Saturday
44 degrees low, 63 high, the sky bouncing from partly cloudy, to fair. I started the morning going to the beach to the beach and see the great ice shelf. It was thick enough for light compact cars to drive on it, but not thick enough for large pickups. The highest natural point in Broward County is 29 feet above sea level. It is an ancient dune. Around it the land is 17 feet above sea level. The park service has been protecting a glacier that is on that “mountain” for years. Because of the cold, the glacier spread out and made it half way to the ocean last night. It created some traffic problems because of roads it crossed. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I had a slow day to start. I did some computer work and looked closer at videos on making foil roses. I finally got outside after lunch. I made five more foil roses each with a different method. A few look pretty good, but still not up to snuff. I really need to use a quick setting glue and glue the flowers as I am forming them. One was made with stiff foil petals cut by mom. Another was essentially rolling up some kitchen foil, flattening it, then twisting it. One was snipping the top of the foil and bending the snips over after they were wound around the stem. I did a couple other methods and none were really good. I am just not taking the time to do it right.
After that, I sat with mom and talked, and then I went home and took things easy. It is not supposed to be near as cold tonight. I will see what happens tomorrow.
Year 20, Week 49, Day one (week 1092)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-27-20 Sunday
49 degrees low, 33 high, mostly fair. I headed to the beach to the beach and see the great ice shelf again. Because of the second day of exceeding cold, I was able to drive onto the ice shelf. I decided to drive over to the Bahamas and see what was happening there. Half way there, I came to the Gulf current. I was driven back by the gulf balls that were flying at me. When I got back that glacier was right near the ocean. It was stopped by the “PARROT HEADS,” the people at the bars on the beach, chipping the ice for their drinks. I am told that should the glacier reach the ocean, it would drop off icebergs and they would hunt down ships like a shark and try to sink them. Luckily it was stopped before it reached water. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I started later than expected, and stopped at Michael’s Art Supply on the way to Mom’s. I don’t understand why Santa didn’t give me the contents of one of these stores. Could it be “all those incidents” over the year?
I had sent a friend pictures of flower arrangements that look like puppy dogs. I thought I would try to make one with artificial flowers so it would last a while. Last week, Jo-Anne’s cloth world looked pretty much picked over in the flower department. I had not had this idea at that time, though. Michael’s had the right flowers, but they were more than I really wanted to go. I am likely way off, but the puppy flower arrangement was looking to me to be over $60 when done. Not ready for that. Most of the right kind of flowers were big. That would make the puppy big also. I will check at Jo-Anne’s some other time and price their flowers. I have a few ideas to where I could come up with something passable using other materials. Creating it though, will be pure experimentation and there should be a lot of mistakes in the process, so I would likely need extra material, even if it worked.
My main project was to empty the lathe box and pack it properly. I did empty it, and then did a couple repairs. The stand that holds the motor head when milling (bit hanging down, material sliding side to side and back and forth under it), as opposed to being a lathe, had a holder on the side of the inside of the box. It broke because it had been bug eaten. I knocked that piece off, and then cut a piece of wood to replace it. My first one , which was from a two by two, was too small. I did a quick measure with my finger and forgot that a two by two is not two inches by two inches. It is about one and three quarters square. I cut replacement from a 2x4, making sure it was the right size, then I had to drill a hole in it.
I had a spade bit that was for electricians to reach deep into things. It was smaller than I needed, but I was able to put my hands on it quickly and remove a lot of wood. It was dull so it was not as quick as I really had hoped. Afterwards, when I was packing up, I remembered I have a set of Forsner bits that would have been the right size and they were close at hand.
I had to use the dremel to make it big enough. After I was done with that, I found that this piece was supposed to be open on the top because the shaft could not fit through both holders with closed holes. I used the dremel to cut it open at the top and the piece is held nicely. Needs some correction but is workable now. There are a few things that I have to do to get all the fixtures in the box where they originally were.
I had considered making a new box a few years ago, but I was not up to the task at that time. I am now. It is the original box so it is worthy of keeping for a while.
The dremel bit I used was designed for a regular drill or a Fordum which has larger chucks than the dremel. A couple years ago, I had machined the shaft of this bit smaller, but there was a lot of original shaft between the head of the grinding bit, which is like a drum filled with spikes, and where the dremel grabs. It kept bending on me. That is not good at the high rate of speed the dremel works with. A couple weeks ago, while machining some drill bits to fit the dremel, I also machined the shaft of this bit. I brought the thinned shaft that the dremel grabs to almost at the head. It worked like a dream. It ate the wood fast and was totally controllable and there was no wobble from being knocked out of balance. I have a bit of correction to do on that new piece on the box but it works as it is.
I put the stuff back in the lathe box and when done, it was not much better than when I had started. I did find a couple missing tools, but it is still a mess. My brother suggested putting drawers under it. I will have to look to see what is commercially available, possibly at Harbor Freight. I will also look at Lowes
I will have to see what happens next weekend. The thing I fear most about 2020 is the season finale.......
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