Avis & I

Okay ... here we are. Since the blog is focused on me, I thought I'd post a pic of me & my most significant other.

First post!

I am constantly amazed at the little nooks & corners in Google.
* Search engine extraordinairre
* Picasa photo software
* maps.google.com
* online applications (spreadsheet so far)
* photo sharing software ("Hello")
* and now, this blog

Hoo boy ... dems summa smart guys, eh?

Well, in September I started:
1) a business
2) auxiliary pioneering
3) painting my house

It took all month but:
1) The business is booming along at least as well as expected, if not somewhat better than anticipated. Who am I trying to kid? ... I'm swamped!
2) I a) kept my service commitment and b) gained 3 studies
3) all the exterior painting (save for two tiny areas at the base of a porch post that I missed) is done
4) I bought a couple new suits (long overdue)

gaaaack! What a month!
Oh ... and today my second lathe died. I've got to swap motors with the other one tomorrow and then check inventory for Judys' pen. I -might- have the wood she requested but I'm so scattered that I could be holding it in my hand right now and not notice.

I've come to an interesting point in my affairs. I have a basement full of tools that run okay but my needs have gone beyond 'okay' equipment. To get orders out in a timely fashion, I need a better drill press and lathes. But my wife can see that the equipment runs and doesn't understand the effect of wobble in a drill bit ... that it means I have to cut my stock extra large and get fewer total pieces per cubic dimension. Moreover, even though an individual piece of stock costs relatively little, ruining one end of a pen means that the grain of the other end now has nothing to match with. The leaves me tryng to decide whether to make a mis-matched pen and hope no one objects or tossing both matched pieces due to an error in one of them. That means that all the labor in these pieces to this point goes down the rat hole ... never to return. The time to order it or get out and buy it. The time to cut it to length, the time to drill the first part (if it is the second part that has failed). The money for gas and materials and depreciation and electricity to this point. All gone. Nope ... I need a GOOD drill press. Now.

Or maybe I can just find a good way to hold them for drilling in the lathe.

fwoompf

That's enough for tonight ... my brain is starting to hurt under the burden of having to think so much.