June 25 – “It’s done”

The workbench is complete.  It took a while longer than I expected (always does), but then I had some fine apprentice help.  Jachin came out at the times we needed some heavy muscle.  He helped pick the bench up and flip it over a time or two before returning to his air conditioned comfort.  But Micah was there with me, measuring twice and cutting once, every step of the way.  He was blessed to wear the laser goggles when the circular saw was spinning.  He didn’t seem to mind, though.  Said they were pretty cool, in fact.  He pulled wood from the pile, held it in place during cuts, handed me screws, and even screwed in some of the connections himself as well. 

Micah was really good at the basic math stuff.  Especially for an eight-almost-nine-year-old.  “Needs to be a total of twenty-four inches.  We already have two three and a half inch strips.  What should our measurement be for the last cut?”  I know.  One of those dreaded word problems.  But there’s something about it actually meaning something that makes it a little easier, I guess.  We even had a geometry lesson (I think it would be considered geometry.  I’m not so good at all that advanced math).  I was marking some wood for a cut and asked if he knew why I was marking two points.  He passed on an answer, assuming the question was rhetorical, a technique I learned many years ago as well.  I told him, “If you choose any two points, anywhere in the universe, and connect the dots, the result will be a straight line that can continue forever in either direction.  And all we need is for it to be straight from one end of the two by four to the other.”  I hope that’s somewhere close to the right answer.

One of the main reasons we built the workbench was so I could showcase my Dad’s old vise.  It’s a massive one.  However, I haven’t gotten that far in my calculations as yet.  That one is still on the drawing board.    

I only had to make one return trip to the store.  When we went to put on the casters, I realized that the screws we had would slip right through the holes, and I didn’t have any lock washers.  Rather than go all the way to Home Depot, though, I ran over to Village Hardware.  They always have just what you need, especially in those strange areas that always seem to pop up in a project.  And I was right.  They had exactly the size we needed, so the caster – and the project – were finally complete (well, complete after Chris and I managed to turn it back right-side up).

The work bench now sits proudly in the garage, waiting for its final resting place.  Well, maybe not final.  It is on casters, after all, so I can move it around if I want.  And why does it have to wait?  Because now I have the not-so-small task of cleaning out the area where now sits a table and three or four floor-to-ceiling stacks of those old milk cartons, each one filled with something.  A good shelving system, but admittedly somewhat shaky at times.  The plan is to put some shelves up on the wall, making the milk carton system obsolete.  Even have the hardware and shelves to make it happen.  But the fact remains … first I have to clear out the space.  Which brings up another important question … Where do they put all the homeowner’s stuff when they do those HGTV shows?  And do they get to keep all that new furniture, or is that just staging?  And if they keep it, what about the family pieces they want to keep?  Guess I wouldn’t be such a good candidate for HGTV. 

Psalms 34:9-10 says, “Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.   The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

Father, thank you for the time I got to spend with Micah on this project.  Help him discover a way to channel his interests in doing things with his hands and his head.  Amen.