mastercraftsman

I went to the big orange store on my lunch break today. Limping just a bit, but it's gone now. Anyway I get in line behind a contractor, who recognized me. He just nodded a how's it going and we swapped a couple of pleseantries. A very aloof fucker. The whole time I was thinking he should be on TV on amateur hour with Mr....
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Today very much reminded me of long passages at sea. Say, like heading out across the Gulf of Alaska. Stay inside and putter around, looking out at the rain, occaisionally don some raingear to go out and check things, lash stuff down or whatnot. I went out to empty the bellies of water in tarps covering boats and just got those flashbacks. Inside a welcome...
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No hangover. Just busy with chores today. A new year needs a fresh start. Did yard work, washed boats and truck, washed windows, washed linens and curtains, steam cleaned the carpets until the motor on my Bissell came unmounted and the whole thing shook apart in a wet electrical hazard. The sun was shining and I was out in short sleeves, trimming hedges and raking...
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My new year's resolution is to downsize. Consolidate. Need to sell these boats; keep only one. Need to find a smaller place. Maintaining two acres gets old. I need to find a girlfriend. But that can't be a resolution. More like she has to find ME. I want a newer house but I am so goddamn picky I don't know if I'll find one. I...
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I'm thinking of changing my job title to "magician." Around noon, I was deep into compiling lots of cad drawings, and needing my lunch break. Just then my boss sneaks up on me. "You gotta minute?" "Fuck it. Yeah. What's up?" "This Yayhoo out in the parking lot dropped that unit going to Raleigh." "He sign the recieving ticket?" "Yeah." "So maybe he'll buy another...
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I once apprenticed to this dude who always stressed I should radiate positive energy or I could never create anything. I took that to heart and years later live by that mantra. So today I was really cranking. Things were rolling along sweetly, and I felt like Santa overlooking all his elves, happily working. The cnc programs were long, so I walked around chatting a...
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People who have weird mannerisms crack me up. I thought me wiggling my pinky and thumb out like surfers do instead of the typical Southern thumbs up got a lot of attention until my Ukranian friend dropped one on me today that had me rolling. He's a very experienced woodworker who was machining a raised panel of gnarly Honduran mahogany. No one else but me...
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I love technology, even though I don't always use it. This journal doesn't get my best because I think more intuitively with pen and paper (remember those?). I embrace the revolution but refuse to let go of the old ways. Power can always go out, disk drives can get corrupted, millions of bytes of digital information can magically disappear in the blink of an eye....
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My dog Holly is pretty smart. I thought I had taught her everything, including how to go get me a beer, until a friend pointed out his dog could roll over and mine couldn't. Well, that took all of ten minutes to teach her (with the help of the beloved frisbee). She's my big baby. Anyway when I got home late today she gave me...
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Several moments of insight on this fine day. It was still dark and freezing when the phone rang this morning. A buddy is telling me that he just got lucky cast netting and has way more large shad than he can use and if I want some free bait to meet him at the dock in 45 minutes. I hopped up and hooked up the...
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