Category: The Trades
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Thirty-Eight Years On
Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower A few years ago as my career jump was informing itself, I came across a yellowing black and white magazine-style… Read more
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Between a Rock and a Fireplace
Evidently a geologist-type owned Old Gal sometime before us and felt inspired to face the brick fireplace with his collection of semi-precious rocks and stones. It wasn’t just the out-of-square placing of the crazy stones that bugged me, but the fact that it protruded from the walls by ten inches and was just, well, so… Read more
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Crazy Like the Wind
I think that everyone develops their personal and unique bit of oddness as time progresses. Choosing something that meets my current interests, I’ve decided that I will be the nutty woman who runs around her house obsessively checking for drafts. I spring out of my chair in the middle of conversations asking whether someone opened… Read more
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Chills and (almost) Thrills
I’ve learned through experience that snow can be expected in Ottawa from Halloween on. Only a dusting landed here in the Banana Belt but it was enough to remind me that we were now in the zone and bad weather would become less of a possibility, and more of a probability, with each passing day.… Read more
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Old Gal Gets Naked
Stripping on the main street of any village is usually frowned upon except, perhaps, in the most liberal enclaves. In our little microcosm of the world at large, structural nakedness – the disappearance of siding and the appearance of paint swatches – can set gums a flappin’ and opinions a flyin’. It’s good for at… Read more
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Shop Class 101: Kindergarten Redux
I remember clearly my very first shop project in Advanced Housing at Algonquin College. We were tasked with building a preacher’s block and it was a pass/fail assignment. Sawing, planing, chisel work, and sanding were all to be accomplished without the aid of power anything. After several classes my block looked unmistakably sad. It was… Read more