One year ago today: January 1, 2025, a year with no plans.
Five years ago today: January 1, 2021, some anti-spyware stuff.
Nine years ago today: January 1, 2017, I still need the bits.
Random years ago today: January 1, 1982, I miss Pt. Roberts.
Muffins. And if that is the only thing for today, I’m too over-the-hill to care. The lumber tested 11% moisture and soon as it hits 60°F, I’m heading to the shed, it’s box time. We’ll be cutting lumber this morning. I invested the hour learning a bass score that emulates the piano riff in “Imagine”, with emphasis on the passing notes that aren’t there. I never said it was a bad song, I said it was not suitable as party music theme for my stage act. Um, it might be now, but it is very difficult to play. However, in the famous words of Kennedy, “We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.”
I found out why my new stove was half price. The oven takes 16 minutes to pre-heat. It’s okay once you adapt your moves. The increased variety of food makes up for it. Just in time, too, as I removed my hotplate, I found it was about to burn out anyway. That was the good news. I set out the lumber and tools to make five boxes today. It was two equivalent units—my beautiful air compressor finally gave out. I had two units in production at that point and switched to my portable unit.
That small compressor was a find and I do not want to wear it out, so I’m stuck. There is no money for a replacement until March. We can admire the progress is you want. This is the Z-box, which is somewhat streamlined by now using jigs and totally dependent on pneumatic staples. Let’s take a look for the hell of it.
This view reveals the two main Z-box jigs. It is a mortal offense in these parts to cut any piece of wood that has green spray paint on it, just so you know. This is using the big chop saw but if production increases, it is out to the scooter shed for this stage of the operation. The second jig has two purposes, one is to cut the side panels, the other is to center the thumb-hole. You can just make out the spinning drill bit.
The next step is side piece assembly. That Titebond™ glue is pricey, but turns out the only one that does the job. Gluing the end-grain is wasteful, but I’ve read how to use a cheaper glue to seal the pores first. These photos don’t reveal a host of minor details, but the better appearance of the wood is making a difference.
The Mizpah Hotel lobby.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
The compressor is hooped, it is the control and switching module which I doubt could be repaired. These last two pics show a bottom slat being cut and the two boxes of today. One standing on end has some of the bottom complete. At this time, cold, dark, and some mighty brave cold-weather mosquitoes brought us to a standstill. You may not see it, but these boxes are super-nice compared to a year ago. They are overbuilt and each has 42 staples, these boxes are very strong.
The bottom pieces are still hand-fitted, with the final piece shaved to spec. I don’t know, can you see the effect of each box now built from one picket? No mix and match. I could have stayed on and applied the yakisugi finish. But India has pleaded for me to show her and this may be the last opportunity for a bit. I’ve concluded the lady has peered into her future as a small-town divorcee and is really trying to get something going. She may, I say may, even have some management potential.
It’s curious how these boxes have figured in other’s lives. These five boxes are not built yet but I know where some are heading. Agt. M, JZ, and India get these and if time permits, we may get some of the smaller boxes done. They are great for making junk look organized, which has universal appeal for everybody I know.
Glancing at the feeds, I see a Swiss club caught fire. Rumor is 2026 will begin with mass layoffs and people will act like it never happened before. Bitcoin continues to lose $2 billion per month. And again, Boost has somehow shown that I am again over my data limit despite upgrading my plan twice for and extra 20MB. This seems small to major users, but my usage has never changed. In December, I was gone for a week, my usage should fall. As usual, I suspect the system is itself using or activating background procedures. I regularly go into advanced setting to discover dozens of active Windows crap, like Web Experience Pack, which does nothing but download shit you don’t want.
Welcome to 2026.
