June 30 – “On the shelf”

Phase two (out of who knows how many phases) of the garage reclamation project was accomplished yesterday.  We put up four shelves next to the new workbench and wheeled over an old metal work cart to see what the second workbench (yet to be completed) would look like. 

Sounds like a fairly simple task, doesn’t it?  Putting up a few shelves.  Wall mount.  Couple of screws and call it a day, right?  Well … not so much.  For the Vaughan Garage, that meant clearing out three stacks of those old plastic and metal milk delivery cartons that they used to use (well, they may still use them).  We have been using the stacks as our makeshift shelf for … oh … about seven plus years.  It’s actually been longer, but I’m relegated to dating pre and post Hurricane Ike.  Then we had to clear out all the stuff that has accumulated all around the area where we would be working so we could get the ladder up.  I was actually shocked when Chris didn’t stop the process at intervals so she could sweep.  Guess she’s leaving that to me. 

Once everything was cleared out, I crawled up into the attic so we could get an accurate location of studs.  The sheetrock in our garage was textured and painted just as well or better than the rest of our house, so it was impossible to find evidence of nails.  My stud finder required a new nine volt battery, which we, of course, had none of in the house.  We made the markings, and then, just because I have a lot of my old-school Dad in me, I grabbed a hammer and a long, skinny old nail and hammered it in.  No stud on our marks.  Any of them.  That’s when Chris remembered that there used to be a door right where we were hammering.  The stud pattern would be altered significantly.  Time to throw out the scientific approach and stop worrying about beauty.  It was the garage after all.  I hammered and relocated until I found stud locations we could use to screw in the shelf brackets.  Only took eight or ten tries. 

We got the shelves up without further annoyance, and began the process of stocking them.  We threw away a bag full of stuff, but still had to find places for much of what was residing in our makeshift, terribly dangers stack of milk cartons shelving system.  That did take a while, but in the end, we had everything happily residing in its new home.  All done, right?  Not so much.  The final part of the process in every project is the cleanup.  Not that I mind clean up, but that meant every old milk crate, plus the old table plus the lawn mower my neighbor just gave me plus the boxes we haven’t yet delivered to Kel and Christina for their moving adventure all had to find its way back into my beautiful new garage.  Sigh.  Next up?  Hanging Dad’s old florescent light fixture over the workbench area.  I can feel the sore muscles now …

Psalms 37:8 says, “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret — it leads only to evil.”

Father, that’s an unusual, out of the blue kind of verse for today.  But help me to keep it in the forefront of my mind.  Don’t get mad.  Don’t worry.  Don’t get mad.  Don’t worry … Amen.