Weather here in Reno is different than my old home. It takes a bit of getting used to. The desert is more extreme in temperature and there’s a lot more wind. One of the local TV stations has a weather report titled, “Where’s my trashcan?” Which measures wind speed with a graphic of how far down the street your trashcan will be blown.
It can get windy here and it can get cold. I’ve also been told that – what’s that stuff, called? You know the white stuff that falls from the sky … Snow, yeah that was it. I’ve been told that it could snow here.
Back in San Jose it rarely snowed. Last time I remember snow there was in 1976. Although it would snow on the mountain peaks during very cold storms. Even then I was tempted to move to warmer climates. I’ve long said, “If you can see snow, you’re too close.”
But now I live in a place where I’ve seen actual snow on the ground where people live. We were visiting in January when I saw that. Now I face the reality that it might snow here while I am actually living here. Okay, that’s not likely to happen for a few months, but one needs to get ready for such things. Me, I take a long time to get ready for stuff.
When I was a kid, I had a retired uncle who lived in Oregon. We saw him twice a year, once in the fall when he and his wife drove their trailer to Arizona for the winter. Then in the spring they’d drive back for summer in Oregon and would stop in San Jose to visit.
Seemed like a good plan to me – moving to a warmer place when it snows. I’d consider it, but I think the cats would object and Heather wouldn’t be to keen on the idea either. The thought of me driving a truck and towing a trailer should frighten most sane drivers.
So, instead I’m just doing the get-ready-for-winter-coming fast. Back in San Jose, winter (or the wet season) started around Thanksgiving and might last till early March. Here I’m told to expect freezing temps anytime in the next two weeks and for it to start warming up by May.
Which brings me to why I have a brand new sewing machine. Two reasons really – I’d really like to get into quilting and I won’t have a heated woodworking shop this winter.
I do have this really cool theory about quilting and marquetry where I believe that many traditional patterns can be expressed in both fabric and wood, but this post isn’t about that.
One of the things we liked about this house we bought is that it has a large shed that at first looked like I could convert into a heated workshop for my marquetry. It has windows and electricity. Sadly it also has a number of building issues, like the fact that water runs through the shed. Not around it, or over it, but through it. We noticed this during a thunderstorm a couple of months ago.
Have I mentioned that thunderstorms are kind of cool to watch and we rarely got them in San Jose?
Anyway, turns out the foundation and siding on the shed side were done incorrectly and the thing just isn’t suited for conversion to a shop space. It would likely cost more to fix it than just build a new one.
Did someone say build a new workshop? Yes, we did. There’s enough land here that I could build a larger workshop with better water protection, power and heating. That’s the good part. Bad part is that I’ll need a building permit, engineering plans and a contractor to build it.
We’re talking like six months at best before that can happen. Possibly longer.
I do have one bay on our garage to do some woodworking in. Heating that might be possible for some projects and I’ll be using it until I have something better.
Which brings me back to the sewing machine and this winter. I have some specific projects in mind that involve both a fabric and wood component. With my very own machine in my nice warm room, I hope to get through a couple of fabric projects and then when the weather warms or my temperature controlled workshop is ready I can start on the wooden component of the project.
In between quilting projects I’ll also have the fun and frustration of getting that fancy woodworking paradise built.
Andrew's View of the Week 