24 is Sometimes Not Enough, or Why I Try to Blog

By 24, I don't mean my age. In fact, I turn 39 very soon, and I wouldn't go back to 24 unless I could know what I know now (kind of like the old song...). No, I'm talking hours. I'm struggling to find the time to do everything on my list. I need to get the swamp cooler ready for its hibernation--first frost is imminent. The rental house chimney needs a screen (a bird flew down the other day). The truck fan is on the fritz, and both it and the car need oil changes. On top of that list are other commitments, such as the family, eating food and drinking water, exercise, my chemistry day job and my side occupation as piano teacher and musician, and the "honey do" list (I just finished my wife's big work table, which I'll be posting about later, but I also have some book shelves and a vanity to finish for my daughter). The yarn store sold out of fishing flies, so I'm falling asleep at the tying vise most nights trying to fill orders. I don't know if I want more that 24 hours in a day, though, because I'd fill those up, too. There's always a new idea brewing, like the open mic night I'd like to start and the acoustic jam session and the piano group and the "manly" Christmas stockings I'd like to sell this year.

7 boxes down, 3 more to go. Then on to the grasshopper mimics, and the "flies I like best" mix. Like I said, there's always a new idea brewing.

So, given all that, the first thing to slip off my priority list was this blog. I like to keep it up, if for no other reason than it gives me a good chronicle of my thoughts and accomplishments. At any given time, I probably have about 4 blog posts that I'm working on (right now that number is up to 7). Some require research. Some require pictures. But there's always a bottleneck. I have great respect (and a bit of jealousy) for the folks who can work full-time and maintain their weekly (or more often!) blog posts. Shannon Hayes (weekly) and Ben Hewitt (more often) come to mind, as they are both farmers/radical homemakers. But they make a regular effort. Good writers have all said that honing the craft requires daily practice. That's true of every other craft or art or practice, too, I suppose. Music definitely falls into that category!

I've dabbled in writing off and on throughout my adult life, but the blog has led to my most regular and prolific output. The biggest upside to writing in this format is that the data is stored online, somewhere else, and I don't have to pack my laptop (or even a thumb drive) around with me to be productive. I just need a computer I can log into. Another benefit is that I can write about whatever I want to write about and post it here. That would probably change as soon as I sought to monetize the blog and expand my audience, but for now, I am content to have it be free and easy for all of us. I like the purely democratic nature of the internet, and, since I do other things to make my living, I want to keep my blog open-ended. Hopefully, if you are reading this, you think that I have had something interesting or even useful to say. I have a lot of interests, and I'm hoping that something on my blog appeals to someone else, too (you?). That someone else can forward it on to another person, and we can all share some piece of life together. I marvel at our connectedness.

Thanks for reading!

Recycled Project: Shelf with Hooks

With the kids both in school, and homework happening at the kitchen counter, we needed someplace nearby for backpacks and homework to call home-base. I immediately thought of the standard sort of Junior High Woodshop shelf plan, of which I've probably built 5-10 over the years in various sizes and shapes. Mrs. Big A, however, remembered buying some old table legs/feet at an estate sale 10 or so years ago and thought we should finally enlist them into service. The plan was to use the legs as shelf supports, attach a back with hooks to the supports, and attach a shelf across the top. We set a few goals for this one, though, which were: 1) use only materials on hand (not buy anything new), and 2) obtain a rustic look, 3) create something sturdy, useful, and attractive.

The table legs presented the first challenge in that there were no flat edges or square corners. I needed to create a right angle somewhere on the table legs so it would hang straight and flat against the wall, but I wanted to maintain the character of the legs. Basically, it was a matter of creating a straight line along one edge (the "top" of the shelf) then cutting a right angle to that line (for the "back"). I used the bandsaw for this task, a tool that I find myself turning to time and time again. Used carefully, it can do amazing things.

In this photo, the top leg is cut/trimmed, stained, and finished. The bottom one is rough, though you can see my layout lines if you look closely.

Next, I created the back. I have a small (and thankfully, dwindling) pile of scraps and boards I've acquired through the years, and enlisted this old solid oak board. After scraping off the old finish, I had this:

The back. I can't believe this was covered with paint. I also can't believe I got all the paint off.

The top shelf was a bit trickier because I didn't have any "rustic" wood that was wide enough to work as a shelf, or enough narrower pieces to glue together into a shelf. I did, however, have some cherry veneered MDF left over (my wife found a couple pieces at a yard sale years ago, and I used some on the Digital Upright project), so I cut it to the size I wanted and edged it with solid oak. I softened the corners and took a pass with the router to round the edges. I stained it all with Minwax Red Oak stain, which made the grain in the cherry wood pop out, but rendered the oak edging too red. I was left with a shelf that looked beautiful and brand new, and supports and back that did not. I had to make everything match. I stained the uprights with the Red Oak, as you could see in the pictures above, and treated the shelf part with a Golden Oak stain to add more of a brown tint. Not perfect, but close.

The top shelf.

When the stain was dry and the dust was wiped away, I measured and drilled the back to attach it to the wall, and treated everything with 3 coats of Minwax Rub-on Polyurethane (satin finish). I attached the hooks and put it all together with nails and screws.

Here is the shelf in use.

Homework center complete! Eventually that baby blue wall color will have to change...

It took around 4 hours total time to build this one, and a lot of time was saved because I didn't have to scroll cut or sand the uprights. It's hard to estimate the cost, because some purchases go back 10 years or so, but I'm guessing it's around $20. The hooks themselves have been recycled multiple times at various locations. Regardless of thrift, the kids now have a place for their backpacks and homework that is not on the floor just inside the front door!

Thanks for reading!

Your Corner of the World Is Paradise, Too!

Gig updates:
- September 13 w/D.K. & the Affordables, at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos, 2:30 pm
- September 13 w/D.K. & the Affordables, at the Cowgirl Restaurant in Santa Fe, 8:30 pm
- September 17 w/Craig Martin Experience, at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos, 5:30 pm
- September 20 w/Craig Martin Experience, wedding in Los Alamos

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Before we get to the meat of this post, I have a couple "admin" items. First, I post my blog updates on Facebook. If you aren't on Facebook or don't check it regularly, and you want to see when I post something new, sign up for email updates. All you have to do is enter your email address in the box on the right of the page and presto!--you'll know when I post. Second, feel free to leave comments at the bottom of each post, if you are so inclined. I welcome your feedback. Finally, feel free to forward my blog to anyone you might feel is interested. I write on a wide variety of topics that I'm sure will appeal to someone!

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Now, on to this week's thoughts:

A couple weekends ago, I reached a surprising state of near-bliss. I say surprising because the weekend started out a bit rough. My wife was sick starting the Wednesday before, which caused me to miss a gig Thursday night (it would have been an overnighter in Las Vegas, NM, the Mrs. was stuck to the couch in that virus-induced daze I'm sure we've all been through, and she needed help keeping kids on track). But, I got to spend some quality time with the kiddos. On Friday, I ran some errands, took a nice bike ride up in Los Alamos (Bayo Canyon, down & back up), and got a nice walk with the dog. Saturday saw a 2-hour ride on a trail I hadn't ridden in 10 years, which started and ended at the front door. I also got my son out on a trail ride. On, Sunday, we took a sweet hike down to the Rio Grande with the kids (their longest/toughest ever?). That was all while cleaning up/arranging my studio for piano lessons, finishing a shelf/homework center (more on this one later), shuttling kids, mentoring a friend in the use of power tools (no fingers lost!), working on my wife's studio work table (more on this later, too), processing some data from my actual day job, and building/setting up a lamp in my studio (look for this, too, I guess). Life is pretty good, and I had the thought that gee, I live in paradise!

I'm not writing all this to prove that I'm a busy-body with a wonderful life, but to contrast my rosy outlook today with that of several short years ago. When we moved to Los Alamos in 2003, we looked at it as a temporary stop on our life journey, a way to live and work in Northern New Mexico for a while while looking for other opportunities. But then we became involved in community--my wife taught for a while at a local elementary school, and she got to know other artists. I worked (and still work) at the Lab, ski patrolled, and played music. We did as much as we absolutely could outdoors. But we kept looking elsewhere. Car trip conversations would often begin, "you know, when we leave Los Alamos, we could go..." I've applied for jobs in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Idaho. We've fantasized about real estate in other parts of the country. We were starting to feel stuck in a place we didn't really want to be. The closest we came to actually leaving town, though, was this past spring. I applied for a job at Colorado Mesa University in their Biology Department as a lecturer, and we started packing and getting rid of stuff, putting the energy out into the universe that yes, we were ready for a change. Eventually, what we came to, though, is that we have it pretty good where we are and decided to stay put, town-wise. A month after making that decision, we found and moved to a different house, roughly 2 miles from the old house, and thus embarked on the next phase in our chosen locale. A week after moving in, I got the rejection letter from CMU, which confirmed our notion that staying put was the best decision.

And therein lies the point--we decided to make the best of it. We've always been pretty flexible, as long as we could have a few things--access to mountains and/or open spaces, other creative folks nearby, clean air and water, and a quiet neighborhood in which to call home. Beyond these desires and our creature necessities, we hold firm to the belief that everything else will fall into place. It might not be exactly as we thought it would be, but it will be OK. And so it is with our decision to remain in White Rock. We are glad we chose to stay put, but it took the experience of reframing to come to that place. We had to deviate from the notion that we were stuck--that our current locale was a temporary stop--and realize that we were involved in our community on multiple levels. Our home feels like home, and it is because we choose to make it so.

I hope that you are also glad that you decided to stay put, wherever "put" may be. I hope that you are making the best of your situation and living your life to its fullest. Everyplace has good and bad, every day has ups and downs. It's what you make of the mix that counts. If your situation is lacking, I hope you can find the strength and resolve to either see that you are indeed blessed in some way that you overlooked, or to make the changes necessary to realize your blessings. Taking some time each day to reflect on what is great about your life is part of the power of positive thinking.

In short, if you think that life is wonderful, then it is.

Thanks for reading, and stay positive!