The Saw That Saved Me
Aug. 16th, 2018 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewday[cue music from The Spy Who Shagged Me]
Currently taking up critical space on my mental drawing board--probably in the form of a poorly-drawn sketch stuck there with that beige-colored tape we used in Mr. Schilling's drafting class back in 1959 when I was an 8th grader--has been a project requiring radius-cuts on the corners of 3/4" plywood and 2x6 lumber.
There would be a total of 8 such cuts and they could probably be accomplished by making 45-degree cuts across the corners with a hand saw and then finishing the radius by rounding with a sanding block or electric sander.
Or, I could finish the repairs on the Craftsman jigsaw which was the second or third power tool I'd ever owned and which I'd used in constructing a geodesic dome on the Finger Lakes commune where I lived in the late 1960s.
Which would make it almost 50 years old and probably not worth the $15 dollars they wanted at Lowe's for the new power cord it needed in addition to the circuit board repairs that I'd already made inside of it.
Still, I'd recently been mired in a deep and persistent depression and the mental effort needed to think this through seemed to make things worse. Or maybe, in a sense, served to clarify exactly where I was and what was happening. Either way, I wondered if I'd actually live long enough to use the damn thing, if and when I fixed it.
There were even moments when I wondered if I'd make it to my next meal--which happened to be one of those delicious but deadly antipasto salads which I'd picked up at the store for dinner. (If I made it through the meal, would I survive the cardiac event that it would undoubtedly follow?)
Later, I did sit down to this flavorful mixture of artery-clogging cheese and highly-processed meats--with a few token olives thrown in--and managed to survive. Moreover, while eating, found on the Lowe's website a very basic but well-reviewed jigsaw at a price point that worked for me and, presumably, for my soon-to-be heirs.
So this morning I went to Lowe's and made the purchase. And have since walked up and down the cellar stairs numerous times throughout the day, both to admire my new acquisition and to be sure that it was getting along with my other tools.
Which, as far as I could tell, it was. Although, like its new owner, it's not very talkative when you're face-to-face with it.
In any case, tomorrow is forecast to be a rather nasty day, weather-wise, so I think I'll probably spend some time in the shop and maybe try some practice cuts with the saw that saved me.
And, if that goes well, maybe I'll go ahead and cut a few of those radiuses. Or is it radii? To be honest, I'm not even sure that it matters to one so recently returned from that dark and lonesome edge.
I think it's time for another walk down to the basement...
LPK
Dreamwidth
8.16.2018
Currently taking up critical space on my mental drawing board--probably in the form of a poorly-drawn sketch stuck there with that beige-colored tape we used in Mr. Schilling's drafting class back in 1959 when I was an 8th grader--has been a project requiring radius-cuts on the corners of 3/4" plywood and 2x6 lumber.
There would be a total of 8 such cuts and they could probably be accomplished by making 45-degree cuts across the corners with a hand saw and then finishing the radius by rounding with a sanding block or electric sander.
Or, I could finish the repairs on the Craftsman jigsaw which was the second or third power tool I'd ever owned and which I'd used in constructing a geodesic dome on the Finger Lakes commune where I lived in the late 1960s.
Which would make it almost 50 years old and probably not worth the $15 dollars they wanted at Lowe's for the new power cord it needed in addition to the circuit board repairs that I'd already made inside of it.
Still, I'd recently been mired in a deep and persistent depression and the mental effort needed to think this through seemed to make things worse. Or maybe, in a sense, served to clarify exactly where I was and what was happening. Either way, I wondered if I'd actually live long enough to use the damn thing, if and when I fixed it.
There were even moments when I wondered if I'd make it to my next meal--which happened to be one of those delicious but deadly antipasto salads which I'd picked up at the store for dinner. (If I made it through the meal, would I survive the cardiac event that it would undoubtedly follow?)
Later, I did sit down to this flavorful mixture of artery-clogging cheese and highly-processed meats--with a few token olives thrown in--and managed to survive. Moreover, while eating, found on the Lowe's website a very basic but well-reviewed jigsaw at a price point that worked for me and, presumably, for my soon-to-be heirs.
So this morning I went to Lowe's and made the purchase. And have since walked up and down the cellar stairs numerous times throughout the day, both to admire my new acquisition and to be sure that it was getting along with my other tools.
Which, as far as I could tell, it was. Although, like its new owner, it's not very talkative when you're face-to-face with it.
In any case, tomorrow is forecast to be a rather nasty day, weather-wise, so I think I'll probably spend some time in the shop and maybe try some practice cuts with the saw that saved me.
And, if that goes well, maybe I'll go ahead and cut a few of those radiuses. Or is it radii? To be honest, I'm not even sure that it matters to one so recently returned from that dark and lonesome edge.
I think it's time for another walk down to the basement...
LPK
Dreamwidth
8.16.2018
no subject
Date: 2018-08-18 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-18 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-19 05:13 pm (UTC)