review: human contact

[nospam]

just a few thoughts on my interaction with another wrecker "face to face" as it were.

"Mark and Juanita" posted a for sale here on the wreck... selling some

4" dust collector ducting left over from his upgrade to 5". Seeing as how I'm in the process of setting up with 4", and he was offering the old parts at a discount over new parts, and I'm such a bottom feeder, and we happen to be in the same town and all... I posted a reply. he re-replied and a couple of emails and calls later I dropped in at his shop to check out the goods. we had a pleasant time sorting out the fittings, shooting the shit and generally talking shop. one thing really jumped out at me... how clean Mark's shop is. I mean, sure he has his dust collector already set up, so of course the layer of sawdust on everything in my shop was missing, but it went beyond that. being the bottom feeder kinda guy I am, I tend to buy used machinery. nothing wrong with that, of course, and a lot of older machinery is heavier and solider than their new counterparts and blah blah... however, none of my cast iron has that like new gleam. Mark, OTOH, seems to be a new machinery kinda guy. not a speck of rust anywhere to be seen. everything is on mobile bases. the building is well lit. the tools have that contented, well fed look.

I figured out what parts I could use, including a few that fall into the 'maybe' category, loaded them up and counted out some cash, and a few more minutes of general shoptalk and I was on my way. I got the parts I needed and perhaps more importantly I got to pick his brains a bit about how it all goes together. Mark got to turn some of the parts that were taking up space into some cash. Win- win.

Another thing that struck me was how this common interest- woodworking- was able to transcend a sharply visible difference in... I guess you might say style. Mark has a corporate job, nice house, prolly a new car and all that and dresses and has the haircut to match. I'm a third generation artist- craftsman. I drive an old truck, live in an old house and wear my clothes out and my hair long. I'm my own boss. the only debt I have is my mortgage and that's more than I really want. I'd guess that Mark and I have probably never voted for the same candidate in any election. but once we got to talking about tools all of that fell away. underneath that Texas conservative veneer Mark's a pretty nice guy. Figures- he's a woodworker, after all...

remember, folks... enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy. it's good for you.

Bridger

[Bob Schmall]

I like you.

Bob

[nospam]

snip

Awwwwwwwwwww.......... Bridger

[jo4hn]

Are we to plan on a June wedding?

[e-mail] wrote: [snip]

[Silvan]

It's nice having a job where appearances don't matter. I get my hair cut every couple of years, wear flanel shirts in cold and T-shirts in hot, trim my beard and my fingernails at least once a month... I look like what my grandmother calls a "hinkle" most of the time, and I really don't care.

I went through a thing in high school, talked Mom into buying me some stylish clothes. Walked in, oooh, ahhh, even had a girl hanging on my arm most of the day. That's all it took for everyone to realize that I was still a dork no matter how I dressed, and the clothes never worked again. That ended my brief stint with fashion. :)

[Tom]

Fashion can be bought, Style cannot. I'm still working on the gleanings from "Organic". Tom >Subject: Re: review: human contact

Someday, it'll all be over....

[Bob Schmall]

We're just good friends.

[Silvan]

I have plenty of style. Hermit hillbilly computer dork is a style. :)

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip of a lotta stuff that made me blush.

Yep, it was a very enjoyable conversation, and I look forward to seeing some of that older, solider iron in the near future Bridger (maybe after the first of the year). I think some hobbies like WW transcend other boundaries that might separate people by providing a common interest and many different ways of approaching the hobby -- some folks would find both Bridger's and my use of power tools to be out of sync with their extensive use of hand tools, but we all share the same appreciation of the finished project.

'course you saw my tractor, it doesn't exactly fall under the "bright and shiny new" category. ;-)

[Mark & Juanita]

Now wait a minute, before y'all get the wrong idea here, I don't wear a suit and tie to the shop! (Thinking what I had on ... ) I was wearing my usual (winter) pair of jeans, some tennis shoes (they were new because the pair I bought 3 years ago had finally given out), and a semi-dress long sleeve shirt. What Bridger apparently didn't notice was the hole in the elbows of the shirt -- after I can't wear them for work anymore, I wear them out for everyday.