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Small Improvements
Jul. 22nd, 2012 02:53 pmI have two presentations to write, plus two trips to prepare for, and two manuscripts to work on. Therefore, I've been spending the weekend working on various small home improvement projects instead. I should really get myself over to the gym to Fluid Erg a half marathon (21,100 m), but a couple of miscellaneous aches and pains are making me inclined to hold off on that for a bit. Instead, I think I'll work on canning some fig preserves, so I have something to bring with me on the first trip. The first trip is an expedition up to Nebraska to work with our collaborator on this cricket grant. He's hosting me at his house, and from the sound of things he and his wife have a garden and chickens, so a homemade gift seems like it should go over well. I'm not especially looking forward to the drive there and back, through Oklahoma and Kansas. Ah well.
Anyway, in addition to re-caging the tomatoes, I've been chipping away at miscellaneous little tasks. I was getting really sweaty while ripping boards with a (poorly maintained) cross-cut saw in the garage, so at one point I came inside to grab my little desk fan. The fan has served me well, but it was covered in a layer of fan grime. Well, I finally noticed the starting point for disassembling it, so I did just that, cleaned it out, straightened out a bent fan blade and a bent section of the cover (a window sash once fell on it), and reassembled it. The fan is nothing fancy, but it's satisfying to fix it and know that it should keep going for a long while yet.
I also sharpened my hand pruners. The poor hand pruners and grass clippers spent some time outdoors, neglected, while I was living in Arizona, and got rather rusty. [I'm still working on that whole "proper maintenance of tools" business] I scoured off most of the rust a while ago with some steel wool and then figured they'd probably work even better if sharpened. So I picked up a tiny bottle of baby oil at the grocery store and sharpened away. The only downside was that my hand slipped at one point and I gave myself a gash in the tip of my middle finger. Typical. Profanities were uttered, but only the cat heard them.
Today, I worked on the door-desk. I don't know who came up with the original dimensions for it ( <--joke ), but it was too tall and that made computer use and typing uncomfortable. So I unscrewed the base, sawed two inches off of the legs, and reinstalled the base. A fairly simple project, except that I somehow lost the driver bit that goes in the drill, so in the middle of things I had to run off to the evil giant hardware store to get a replacement bits and bobs set.
And now I can actually comfortably work at my desk on the aforementioned projects. Work is made even more pleasant by the lovely view of the oak trees in the shaded backyard, plus I can keep an eye on the tomatoes to make sure they don't escape from their new cage. And the clean fan is helping to keep me cool and comfortable.
Anyway, in addition to re-caging the tomatoes, I've been chipping away at miscellaneous little tasks. I was getting really sweaty while ripping boards with a (poorly maintained) cross-cut saw in the garage, so at one point I came inside to grab my little desk fan. The fan has served me well, but it was covered in a layer of fan grime. Well, I finally noticed the starting point for disassembling it, so I did just that, cleaned it out, straightened out a bent fan blade and a bent section of the cover (a window sash once fell on it), and reassembled it. The fan is nothing fancy, but it's satisfying to fix it and know that it should keep going for a long while yet.
I also sharpened my hand pruners. The poor hand pruners and grass clippers spent some time outdoors, neglected, while I was living in Arizona, and got rather rusty. [I'm still working on that whole "proper maintenance of tools" business] I scoured off most of the rust a while ago with some steel wool and then figured they'd probably work even better if sharpened. So I picked up a tiny bottle of baby oil at the grocery store and sharpened away. The only downside was that my hand slipped at one point and I gave myself a gash in the tip of my middle finger. Typical. Profanities were uttered, but only the cat heard them.
Today, I worked on the door-desk. I don't know who came up with the original dimensions for it ( <--joke ), but it was too tall and that made computer use and typing uncomfortable. So I unscrewed the base, sawed two inches off of the legs, and reinstalled the base. A fairly simple project, except that I somehow lost the driver bit that goes in the drill, so in the middle of things I had to run off to the evil giant hardware store to get a replacement bits and bobs set.
And now I can actually comfortably work at my desk on the aforementioned projects. Work is made even more pleasant by the lovely view of the oak trees in the shaded backyard, plus I can keep an eye on the tomatoes to make sure they don't escape from their new cage. And the clean fan is helping to keep me cool and comfortable.
