Holding Pattern

Some musings, completely unrelated to woodworking, so read no further if not interested!

Have been thinking a lot recently about the job, about past lives (no, not the Charlie Brown (aka wishy washy) “I’ve had past lives” crap, but previous career paths etc), and a thought dawned on me this morning that the role I am doing now has a lot of similarities to where I was at about 14 years ago.  There are some differences – I earn more now, I have a lot less disposable income (family, home etc), I know whether I am free in 3 weekends time to arrange something non work related, I’m not up in the middle of the night for hours of sleep depriving battlestations (or wait, perhaps I am- parenting and sleep deprivation go hand-in-hand!).

My role these days does have similarities to the AMEO/DMEO (Deputy Marine Engineer Officer), and Officer of the Day (OOD) all rolled into one.  I have keys to all parts of the building, like the OOD, I deal with maintenance, damage control, scheduling work etc etc.  It’s like in the last decade I have come full circle, and found myself where I started. Not sure if that is a comforting thought or not – perhaps I am back on track with a lost 14 years in the middle, or that it is just life, and by going through doors, sometimes one finds themselves in a parallel room, looking through a window to where one once stood.

Went rummaging last night and found my naval qualification certificates and commissioning parchment – some to be added in frames around the souvenir / memory board I’m creating.  Lots of photos too – been thinking of finding them a cloudy home (a blog of sorts), with various anecdotes as I recall them. Not all PC, as you’d expect!

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At least I get to do more woodworking these days, and have a patch of the planet that is my own, with a shed firmly planted there!

 

Richard Raffan Turning

Been watching my woodworking DVDs again recently (makes a good distraction while cooking!), and have been looking again at the Richard Raffan DVD from Taunton on Turning Boxes.

Damn, but he makes it look easy.  I was trying (without first reading any instructions, or reviewing videos etc) roughing out a bowl recently, and found it took a significant amount of force to get the tool to hollow out the centre, so decided very quickly than rather risk some catastrophic kickback, to review the how to materials first.

Seeing how Richard was doing it showed I was somewhat on the right track, but it should have been a lot easier than I was experiencing.

Perhaps I need to go on one of these Woodturning Cruises!  Puttering around the fiords of Norway, in a floating shop/training facility for wood turners.

One of the guys in the video has a T-shirt- you just catch a glimpse of the logo “When I die, bury me….in my shavings”

Did a quick Google of that, and found at Peachtree that they have a few others as well, including “Happiness is being covered in sawdust”,

“I love the smell of sawdust in the morning” and one I can definitely sympathise with:

Wonder if they have one “When I’m turning, DUCK!” Or “Blood is a woodturner’s patina” or “You know when you’ve had a kickback when your hands are ringing like they’ve just been to a rock concert”.  No – no accidents recently, although I have experienced all the above at one time or another.

One thing I really like from Richard’s video, and as was at the start of one of Mark Duginske’s videos – the woodworker in the forest, sourcing his raw materials.  These guys don’t start a project wandering around aisles of crapiata at Bunnings.  They get out there and harvest their own.