18 July 2008

What should I be doing?

Whatever I am doing, I often feel like I should be doing something else. Here are some examples:
When grading papers, I think I should be making lesson plans
When making lesson plans, I think I should be grading papers
When sleeping, I think I should be awake
When awake, I think I should be sleeping
When lecturing in class, I think we should be doing an activity
When doing an activity in class, I think I should be lecturing
When watching TV, I should be reading, sleeping, doing yard chores, blogging, checking my emails, ...
When working on Jaely's built-in, I should be spending time with Lins and Jaely

Lindsey has been asking me (not nagging as she claims) to post about the built-ins progress. I finally completed the Katamino level I was working on while she was blogging and its not quite time to feed Jaely yet, so here is an update:

Before last year, I would never describe myself as "creative." Creative people have always left me awestruck. I realized through working on the built-in project that I am creative. I have heard that science is a creative endeavor, and now I see what that means. Through working on this project and thinking about how scientific knowledge is built, I understand that to be creative is part of being human. Anyways, on to the progress...

The dresser started as a stack on cherry boards that were sorted, selected, and milled to the proper sizes. I spent a few weekends this winter working on that. After the boards were the right size and flat, the joints had to been laid out. Then came the cutting and fitting of the joints. Much of the winter was spent on this work. The result was a stack of pieces that needed to be put together to make the dresser/changing table skeleton.
I did not spend much time working on this project between the end of March and the middle of June. Although getting this done is important, something seemed to swallow up every spare moment. The next step was to get the all the pieces lined up. This drive Lindsey nuts because it goes together and comes apart about 5 times before I am ready to attach all the parts together.
Once everything was attached, I started the finishing process. This involved lots of scraping and sanding and looking and feeling and then more sanding. Next I started the finish with Danish oil
Now I have t0 wait a few days for the oil to dry before then urethane can go on. I still have to make the drawers (I started sorting the lumber for those today before our trip to GH and the Katamino distraction). The continous hinge for the toy box/window seat arrived today so now I can fix the mistake I made there. Overall, the project is getting close to done. It won't be really done until the carpet is tacked back done and the trim is replaced, so we will see...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt that you are creative! A teacher, a new father, a chef, a woodworker...I'd say creative is an understatement.
Jerry

Anonymous said...

All those years practicing with Legos really paid off!
It's awesome to watch you find out more about yourself. You might be surprised by what you find, but I'm not.
Both of your grandfathers would be bursting with pride. What you 've done is something they would have loved doing, too.
love, mom

EastMI-WoodChips said...

It's coming along GREAT, can't wait to see it all in place.