(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-17-15 Saturday
I forgot to check the temps for the day. I was out of the habit. There was a front lingering south of us, watering the gardens in Miami, but it did not have a passport to come across the Broward County Line...... Mostly cloudy, most of which was high and grey. A light breeze made it nice.
TILL NOW
It has been a while since I posted here. There is a curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” I have had some interesting times.
On June 22, I had knee surgery. On July 11, I broke the wound open and ended up in the hospital for a week because of an infection that went into the bone. I then spent nearly a month with my mom with a nurse coming in to give me antibiotics and tending the wound, which the doctor decided must heal from the inside out. That took extra long.
I finally returned back home a couple weeks ago after the wound closed up, and still am healing.
During this time, I had the chance to get rid of the Ford Ranger pickup and get a Toyota Tundra pickup truck. This new truck has low enough milage that I might be able to go five or more years without a major repair.
A couple weeks ago, I had an interesting day. On the way to dinner, I saw a car on fire. I first saw the black plume, then the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles, and finally the car with the fire department hosing it down. The fire looked about out. Once at my destination, I saw a water spout from a restaurant that was about a mile from the ocean. The Water spout (a tornado over water) was well out in the ocean and never moved. It was on a 45 degree to the road I was beside. After dinner, there was a light drizzle and I stepped on one of the painted stripes on the pavement. My foot went out from under me and I sprained my wrist. I was using my trusty cane at the time and it was in the wrong position to stop me from going down, but thinking about the incident I figure that even a walker would not have prevented that fall. It was that kind of slip.
Waterspout off Fort Lauderdale Beach
During the time out, I could not stand for very long or lift anything, so wood working was out of the picture. I did work on three crochet projects though I had very little interest in doing th em. All three are supposed to be dish cloths, in cotton, that are worked corner to corner rather than across the side. It is a bit of a challenge to get started but the effect is interesting when done, especially with multi colored yarns. With one, I made a mistake in the stitch count and ended up with an equilateral triangle. I still have not figured out what to do with that. There are many ways to save it, or I could rip it out and start over. I have not decided what I will do with it. One I made and gave to my mom. The third is in process. These are made with increases in each row as you work across it At the widest point, one starts reducing the same amount as you were increasing, until you come to the point.. That third dish cloth is now in the reduction stage where I remove stitches until I get back to the corner. If I do it right, it will be square. If it is not, it will be “cock-eyed” like the one I gave mom.
I also learned how to play my Game-Boy gaming system. I have like, 30 games, for it but have only played two, and the one I spend all my time with is TETRIS ATTACK. It killed a lot of time when I was not in shape or mood to do much of anything.
SATURDAY
After breakfast, Mom and I went out looking for yard sales. We hit three sections of our favorite yard sale areas and saw nothing over most of it. We did eventually find two yard sales. At one, I picked up some mini clamps for use in modeling or in machining when holding small parts. At the other yard sale, I had my hands on three things I absolutely did not need. Luckily the price was higher than I wanted to pay for any of them. They were worth it but two of the items were items I already have a couple of and was getting them just to get them.
After we got back, Mom and Dad had to go somewhere, so I first went to a store, then went searching for yard sales in two more areas we normally find sales. I located three more sales. They all had interesting items but most of which I would never use nor have no room for.
When I got back, my wrist was hurting bad. It dawned on me that my cane was aggravating the sprain. There are ways I can apply pressure on my hand, such as pushing myself up, with limited or no pain. There are other types of pressure that causes it hurt bad. The cane, with my weight in it, is the wrong kind of pressure. At that time, I could not leave the cane alone. Too rough walking.
After I got home, I gathered some stuff that I had left at Mom’s house after I had changed trucks and also when I had moved out to go home. I had brought my hand truck and was able to drag the stuff around easily. It is surprising how much stuff one accumulates.
Mom and Dad called and said they were going to eat out, so I went out for lunch (Chinese) and then, when I got home, I basically laid around to give my wrist some rest and relax overall since the day was done enough.
I have some plans for tomorrow, but will have to see how the day goes.
Year 13, Week 36, Day two (week 682)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-18-15 Sunday
82 degrees, mostly cloudy, light breeze, a nice cool Florida day. The Front over Miami headed back south over the ocean. The evenings are cooling down to where one does not have to run a fan to stay cool when the house is wide open.
My brother came up today. It had been a while since I saw him as he has been busy at work. Mom gave him a “little five minute project.” to do. He finished it an hour later. He made a metal end on a ramp at the front door out of aluminum diamond plate. It required him to measure, cut, bend the metal for a perfect fit, and then he tacked it down.
While he was dong this, I decided to prepare to make a set of Sea Grape drumsticks. In moving from one truck to another, my favorite set of drum sticks disappeared.
I grabbed a piece of sea grape log I had split a while back (years ago?) And basically split it in half. I wish I had a Fro which is a blade with a handle used for splitting. You hit the blade to drive it down, and then pull or push on the handle to split the wood in the direction you want to go.
My method of splitting wood is to rap on the back of a hatchet and just keep pounding until it splits the wood enough to pull the blade out. The hatchet handle is to the side so you cannot apply force to the split to open it up. A long time ago, I had hit the hatchet head wrong and a piece of metal popped off and stuck into my finger, so I learned I have to be accurate with my hits. No problem like that this time.
I split the piece in half, which it did not want to do. Then I removed, by splitting, the sharp corners to make them closer to square, less wood to remove on the lathe. I might remove more wood by splitting before I get to the lathe. Having it closer to shape and size will help.
My dominant (right) hand is the one that is sprained. I tried a couple times to hammer with my left hand but I was lucky to hit the ax let alone drive the blade in. I was stuck using my sprained hand to hammer the ax head into the wood. It hurt my hand most when I missed the ax and wood entirely. I had to stop the swing of the hammer and that was what hurt.
I ended up with two pieces of wood that are way too big for drum sticks and a small piece that can be used for making crochet hooks or knitting needles. That was all the work I was going to do whether I wanted to or not. It was actually more than I should have.
knitting needles
It was nice to do SOMETHING in wood for once.
I am hoping to pull the lathe out next weekend and make a drum stick.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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