A week of good stuff
A few things didn’t happen as planned a brief thunderstorm yesterday changed my outdoor activities, for example but in all I’ve had a week of back-to-back good days….
A few things didn't happen as planned a brief thunderstorm yesterday changed my outdoor activities, for example but in all I've had a week of back-to-back good days.
Saturday was gorgeous; way too nice to spend all day in the shop. So Sally and I checked out a public open house for the new planetarium at Marietta College over the river. For a small-town planetarium, it is excellent. Returning home I headed back to the shop for a full afternoon of work. The mail came, bringing a check for a woodworking article I'd done a month ago, and the new issues of Woodshop News, a Civil War magazine, and a favorite science fiction magazine.
Sunday was a full day in the shop, in which I completed the most important work on a reproduction chair I've been making. All my work on this chair has been based on a series of photos from the Library of Congress, and on Sunday it came to fruition. Still have to peen over the rivets (it's a folding chair), add a finish and canvas seat, but the important reproduction aspect of the chair is done and it came out even better than I had hoped. Sunday evening I cooked a great dinner for Mother's Day.
Yesterday, a writing project that had become a pain turned around. I had a breakthrough and it suddenly got easier, allowing me to open up my work schedule for the rest of the week.
This morning I sent out invoices and tallied up what I had coming in. Few things make me feel better than to realize that I'm actually making a living doing what I love to do.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, after a full day in the shop my wife is treating me to the new "Star Trek" movie and dinner out for my birthday. It'll be Mexican. (The dinner, not the movie.)
If all goes well, I should wrap up a tool-review article on Thursday, meaning another opening in the work schedule and, better yet, another invoice I can send out.
And on Friday, if the weather cooperates, it'll be the beginning of my first Civil War reenactment weekend of the season to cap off a perfect week. Plus, I can use the occasion to show off all those reproduction items I made for my book to a quantity of reenactors who'll appreciate them. (And, in turn, help promote the book.) All that's essential is for the weather to cooperate. And against all odds, the six-day forecast looks pretty good.
I'm thinking this might be a good week to buy a lottery ticket.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
