One year ago today: June 2, 2024, the Thrift is gone.
Five years ago today: June 2, 2020, silver disappoints.
Nine years ago today: June 2, 2016, the tree with the tap.
Random years ago today: June 2, 2007, expensive cat beds.
Still down with the flu, I watched some documentaries. One format I liked is call “Blue Paw Print”. Using excellent 3D graphics and intense levels of research, they take apart weapons and explain the workings. These videos are not for everyone but I recognize the incredible effort needed to produce such quality. They are asking for investors, but I don’t know. I further tried to find out why there are so few models of station wagons for sale. The consensus is they were a family car and the traditional American family no longer exists. My Taurus, which I loved, was one of the last wagons made in America at a decent price.
I listened to Taylor’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”, which demos how far she has strayed from her roots. She’s still welcome to crash here, as long as she does not sing that song. I threw on an old John Wayne war movie, “Flying Tigers”, with the scene of the guy on the operating table smoking a cigarette. Or the way they lowered each window in the barracks so every time Anna Lee looks outside, her bacon hangers are perfectly framed.
Six hours. That’s how long I was in the medical office, much of it filling out forms. Tests and decisions, I have a full month of scans, appointments, and consultations. Once they remembered I was the guy with the great insurance, things went easier. Face it, this is no longer the blog of wild and crazy youthful days, but getting settled in here means longer term projects and in this case, longer treatments. They described a condition where bones don’t get along with age and I have it. The recommendation is steroid injections. I know from experience they will slate me for every billable test even somewhat relevant, they’ve made $8,000 a day off me before.
I’m back home and crawling back in the sack. No coffee since 6:00AM this morning and that medical office was so perfectly air-conditioned around half the waiting room including myself fell asleep sitting up. Once again, I was the only one who showed up with reading material, including crosswords. Part of my discussion with the treatment was my concern that I cannot get my desired level of exercise, such as hours long walks with the dogs. They gave me hope the steroid injections often help with that. I’m normally at least twice as active. And I’d give a lot to get back to that. We start tomorrow.
Abandoned New Jersey train bridge.
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Here’s a good spot to fulfill the primary roll of a journal and record today’s progress. Did someone say boxes? Y’know, I hope you are getting a lot more out of my experience with the project than your typical duh-I-built-a-box sort of posting. Especially the on-line jerks that make it look easy and don’t tell you about the mistakes and pitfalls. I went into this [box business] blind, I don’t recall ever in my earlier life building twenty identical things before. Here’s an excellent view of the “mature” product incorporating a dozen changes since two weeks ago, all the result of attritional learning. If you don’t stay motivated, it gets too easy to fall into routine, to take the path of least resistance, you know what I’m talking about.
I’ve learned to place the staples carefully across the grain of the longer side pieces. Even a slight diagonal does not hold as well and can cause the wood fiber to “pinch” slightly upward. Avoid that. The more expensive Titebond glue is worth every penny, it solidly prevents any chance of a slight “wiggle” that was just detectible before. Less evident is how each box is now made from a single piece of lumber, so if the box shown looks just a bit more consistent, that’s because it is.
Better cutting makes the bottom plates fit better. There is a visible seam but no crack, you have to cut the correct face of the wood to get this. I mark it with a dab of ink that gets buried once the piece is tapped into place. Unseen here is how the whole lot of boxes now show a better overall matching of design and construction. I’m proud I managed this artistic accent without being told.
The larger thumb-hole was an instant good move. By making it just 1/8th of an inch greater in diameter, it made the box actually comfortable to pick up. If you want compliments, quickly just hand the box to anyone who shows interest. This comfort [factor] is a strange quality, I wonder if it has anything to do with choosing that Golden Ratio at the design stage? Or is that even related? But I can tell you everyone who has picked up this box so far can imagine something to put in it. You can see the light come on.
The blurb card also points out the box will hold a standard 8.5x11” paper size and a caution that the wood is “insect-proof” and not intended for food contact. Notice the better “finish”? That’s no accident. It’s less generic than before. I spotted that there are parts of the wood that brown better and the burned effect can be achieved faster with less propane by following those veins along. Also, set the compressor up full blast and don’t worry about burying the staples deep the wood grain, leaving a countersink mark. By the time the second person told me they perceive that as a sign of quality, it became standard.
ADDENDUM
Stepping back for a bigger look, I’ve considered advertising and promotion, not that it would come to that. The concept here is what I learned in Scouts, “Be Prepared”. I dropped off a sample box to Wilford, who gave it the acid test—could he break it by hand? No, he could not even flex it and Wilford is what the English army calls a “strapping lad”. He has a lot of public exposure in this town and now he has a box to show. He says there are cedar pickets over at the local lumber yard, which I will check out asap. Those folks know me (the gringo who speaks classical Spanish), and they also have a sample box similar to today’s picture.
Why yes, the projections are done for a large order. You know what I mean, when some hotshot walks in, sees the box, and says, “I’ll be needing 5,000 of these.” It’s my job and my department to be on top of these things. It may never happen, but if it does, none of the logistics will make me by surprise. Now, an order for 50,000 from the DoD because they are stealth boxes, that would catch me off balance.
How important is this potential sales situation around here? Let’s just say I have this brand new thickness planer out in the shed that I have not had time to even take out of the crate. Selling 100 boxes would not change course, but it would shift the ballast around. People, if you find something that works in America these days, milk it dry. This is not England where you can open a shop and make a living. In America, you have to also make enough to meet the competition, and make enough to lose if you can’t, and that means also make enough to start over again somehow else. Nobody will help you, in fact, the tax department hates small business.
