Andrew's View of the Week

Wednesday Woodworking – The Shop Cart in Action for the Cats

Posted on 11/04/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

Had great weather this weekend so I took advantage of the sunshine to start a new project: Cat walkways. You see, we built this room for the cats and well, they need more room. Seems kittens grow into big cats. So to give them more room to roam indoors Heather and I had this idea to build wooden shelves and walkways in the cat room that the cats could climb on during the upcoming rainy season (well, if there’s a rainy season here in California ever again). Construction of the shelves starts with ripping some plywood to width and that’s where my new shop cart helps. It’s the same height as my table saw and gives me just enough surface to safely rip a 4×8 sheet of plywood.

I’ll post progress pictures of the shelves as I get them done.

The setup, table saw, cart, power cord, bandages, cell phone, fire station two blocks away…

That is a 4x8 sheet of plywood freshly cut without injury.

That is a 4×8 sheet of plywood freshly cut without injury.

The total output of an hour’s work: One pile of plywood and one pile of sawdust.

Next week I’ll have updated pictures of the Celtic heart marquetry.

If you need me – I’ll be in the shop,

Andrew

Posted in woodworking | Tagged cat shelve, driveway woodworking, ripping plywood, shop cart, woodworking | 19 Comments

The Menu

Posted on 11/01/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

It officially starts today: NaNoWriMo
Yes, National Novel Writing Month. The month when hundreds of thousand of folks commit themselves to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month.

1,667 words a day. They don’t have to be good words, just words. Editing is done later (question, when is NaNoEdiMo?) The idea is to just free write and get past the blocks that stop us from writing.

I’ve decided not to participate. Yes, I’ve looked closely at the menu of creative choices I have and decided not to do this one. There are lots of reasons. First it would take me two to three hours to write that many words. That much extra writing a day would send my arm into terminal tendonitis.

I can just see the look on my doctor’s face while asking me, “You did what?”

Another reason is, that’s not how I work. I tend to think a lot about what I am going to write before I get to the keyboard so I’d really need six hours a day to complete 1,667 words. Three hours to think and three hours to write that all down.

It’s a bit like me seeing broccoli on the menu. There is really no reason to even consider it. I’ll say it again, “I hate broccoli.” It tastes horrible. I don’t care if it can cure every disease known to humanity. It tastes awful and I won’t eat it, so I don’t waste time ordering.

Okay, NaNoWriMo isn’t as bad as broccoli. It’s more like zucchini. I like zucchini, really. Put it on my plate and I’ll eat it. Now, I won’t order a large plate of it, but I’ll enjoy a couple of spoonfuls. Three, if it’s Heather serving my plate.

Last week I mentioned tuna melts and hinted that I order them a lot. Turns out I really like a good tuna melt. Sure there are other things I on the menu, but sometimes the tried and true is the correct path.

And that’s why I know what I’ll be doing with my writing time this month and why it’s not time to start something new or change directions. I have a poetry collection to finish, a novel work on and poor Miguel is still on that little boat.

So yes, I am ready to order. Ice tea, a tuna melt with a side of coleslaw.

Till next week,
Andrew

Posted in Writing | Tagged NaNoWriMo, writing | 16 Comments

Wednesday Woodworking – Marquetry and a box

Posted on 10/28/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

Now that the weather is turning and days are getting shorter I am moving back to indoor projects. Tonight I started a marquetry piece:

Celtic Heart Knot.

It’s a Celtic heart knot. Some of you might remember me working on a piece like this before. Well, I did and it failed so I am doing it again but this time I am knife cutting the piece. We’ll see if that works.

This last weekend was a marquetry club workshop and we built box joint boxes. Here is mine:

Box joint box

Here it is with the lid off:

Box joint box with lid off.

The box is made from mahogany and the top will get a marquetry rose. Some day.

That’s it for this week.

If you need me – I’ll be in the shop,

Andrew

Posted in Marquetry, woodworking | Tagged box joint box, Marquetry, woodworking | 18 Comments

Vague

Posted on 10/25/2015 by Andrew Reynolds

I got my replacement keyboard yesterday so I can type again.

This is one of those weeks where I haven’t been very creative. I haven’t written anything and the only thing I’ve made in my workshop is a utility shelf (pictures on Wednesday). It’s not that I’ve been “blocked” or lacked inspiration. Quite the opposite – a lot is going on in my brain. Up there are a million bits and pieces flying around, colliding, coalescing… There are at least three writing projects and any number of things in the shop. All vying for my attention and time.

It’s the old ‘menu’ problem. I can only do one at a time and what if I pick wrong? There’s where creative paralysis enters in. I don’t want to be wrong, so I do nothing, or order the tuna melt yet again. Couple that with working a full-time job, all the normal things of life that need to be done, along with all the limitations of the body, and sometimes there just isn’t any obvious creative output I can share.

That’s not a complaint, just a description of how my creative life goes sometimes. It’s a balancing act between all the demands on my time and creative work I’d like to do.

Oh I could go on about focus, time management and “you can do anything if you’re motivated enough.” Likely I’d end up sounding like a bad version of every motivational speaker you’ve ever heard.

The reality is that the creative process isn’t a straight path or even a clear path. It has it’s curves, hills, valleys, fogs, rains, and at times I get lost. At those times, the best thing to do is to simply stop, look around and go back to the last known place on the map and go off in different direction.

So I’ll just leave this week’s post a little short and a little vague while I move off to study the menu a little longer.

Till next week,
Andrew