Rainy Day

A little over an inch of rain today. Seems like that’s all it’s done today!

I spent the biggest part of the day with two tasks: installing a new light fixture for Becky in the laundry room and the destruction of the previous owner’s crappy workbench.

The light fixture chore has once again reinforced my desire to avoid becoming an electrician in this life or any other. That is insanely hot work, jammed into tiny spaces, and requires limberness of a kind that Chinese acrobats would be envious of. I got it installed, but not without a lot of pain, fussing, cussing, and some good ol’ fashioned finger crossing. The light’s beautiful, and is bright, but that was not an easy task.

The workbench destruction, while pleasurable to do, really took the life out of me. Between my baby sledgehammer and skilsaw, I made pretty short work of it, but I could really feel it in my shoulders and back after I was done. He had basically put up six 4×4’s and impaled a sheet of plywood atop, and covered it with masonite. (This guy was the masonite king — there’s scraps of it all over the shop!) Flimsy, and it didn’t hold up to much weight — lots of sagging.

Mine workbench, on the other hand, is again based on 4×4’s, but the top is 2×4 framing, with 2×4 diagonal supports, with a 1/2″ of plywood attached, with a 3/4″ sheet of MDF attached to that. It’s built like a tank — I can even climb around on top of it — and doesn’t even wiggle. I had to get new legs for it, though, as it was originally a desk top, and now I need it a little higher. Installation of that is a Sunday task.

Great dinner tonight at Stir Crazy on Olive. John & Mary, Curt and Kelly and us all met there for fun chat and great food. The only problem is that once again, I walked away feeling that I had been opened and stuffed full of stuff! I had steak and calimari stir fried with their hot basil sauce, along with loads of garlic. Curt and I both noted that even a large amount of garlic didn’t seem to spice the dish up much. Their garlic swims in garlic sauce, rather than being dried garlic, so perhaps that’s the difference.