Hello spring!

We just started Daylight-Saving Time this past weekend, and I couldn’t be more pleased. More daylight when I’m up; less light when I’m not. Works for me.

But more importantly, it also means that spring is here. Coming on the heels of a last-gasp-of-winter snowstorm this past weekend, the advent of changing the clocks also means the long cold winter is finally over. The daily temperature in my shop will be changing. Birds will sing. Dogs will bark. Frisbees will fly.

Oh, man; I love this time of year. No more waiting an hour in the morning for my kerosene heater to get the shop above teeth-chattering briskness. No more lugging a 5-gallon can back and forth to my local kerosene monger. No more numb fingers and no more stashing glue and finishes in my laundry just so they’ll be useable when I need them. And best of all it’s almost time to throw open the garage door to let in the sunlight and the fresh, balmy breezes. Nothing beats natural light, and the fresh air makes work a pleasure.

Good-by winter; hello spring!

Of course, working with the garage door open means that I have to listen to my lunatic neighbor mow her lawn for three hours every day while I’m trying to work, followed by her using a leaf blower to clean the street for a hundred yards in each direction for another hour or two.

And, of course, with the garage door open, I’m constantly reminded of my own yard work that needs done, the cars that need washed, the screens that need cleaned, the bushes that need trimmed. It also means the distraction of chasing a persistent neighborhood cat out of the garage every time it decides sawdust makes a good litterbox. And in a couple more months opening the garage door will mean letting a blast of 90-degree heat inside, along with flies. It’ll mean sweating as I work, and leaving rusty handprints from sweaty palms on the cast iron top of my table saw every time I touch it. Speaking of wet, every time I wrap up the hose and bring it in, it’ll leak and leave puddles. And since we’ll be doing more biking in the warm weather, I’ll constantly have to be shuffling the bike racks in and out to clear my jointer and wood rack.

And of course the worst part is that with all the activities, all the household chores, all the outside work demands, and the constant distractions from my lunatic neighbor, I’ll get less shop time than ever. Bottom line is that when it comes right down to it, I won’t really be getting nearly as much woodworking done at all.

Man, I miss winter already.

Till next time,

A.J.