Running hot and cold

It’s becoming a gorgeous spring here in the Mid Ohio Valley, one of the best in recent memory. In fact, the weather is so typically spring-like, that it’s downright unusual.

It seems that the last several springs have been of the flip-a-switch type: One day things are cold, dreary and damp; then Mother Nature takes a look at the calendar and decides to change things overnight. Shop-wise, this means dressing warm until that switch is flipped, then wearing cooler clothing from then on. This spring has been the type I remember growing up years ago, with a gradually warming transition from winter until things slowly become summer.

As a result, we’re having warm days and very, very cool nights. There’s frost on the ground nearly every morning, and the shop is more than chilly when I head out there. Wearing a sweatshirt or turning the shop heater on for a few minutes takes care of it. But as the day goes on and the sun spends a few hours hitting the shop door, it gets pretty toasty in there. Then it’s off with the sweatshirt and on with a tee shirt – and maybe even shorts – for the rest of the day.

Yesterday morning I found myself holding my hands up to the heater to warm my almost-numb fingers. By afternoon I’d left my first sweat-rusty handprint on the table saw.

There’s an old joke that goes something like, if you’ve ever used your furnace and air conditioner on the same day, then you must live in insert-your-state’s-name-here. Either I live in that state, or I’m living in that joke.

Either way, it’s a spring to remember.

Till next time,

A.J.