I’m a pretty practical guy, so I like to find real world solutions to problems. As an example, my wife makes this really great tuna salad and she usually keeps a little plastic container full in the refrigerator. The other day I grabbed the last two slices of thinly sliced dark rye bread, a fine rye bread of perfect thickness, and a crust with the perfect degree of contrasting…crustiness. Thin enough so I don’t become bored with the taste of bread, yet thick enough so my taste buds are not been immediately greeted by a quagmire of mayo and celery infused tuna. The rye bread has its place, as does the tuna, and everything is arranged consistently where it’s suppose to be. In short, I can always predict a positive taste experience.
The bottom slice was fine, so I queued it in the toaster and reached for the second slice, when I discovered the second slice was out of spec. It was about 90% good, but it had a large air hole in it that suggested future problems. If I put it on the bottom, tuna could seep out in the middle of American Idol and I would have to stop and clean the mess up and I might not recover the wandering tuna. If I oriented the hole as a component of the top slice, the tuna might rise under hand grasping pressure and cause an annoying distraction within my field of view. What if something else got into the hole? After all, it was unoccupied space and anything could rush in to fill the space.
Ultimately, the answer was cheese. A nice sharp cheddar cheese to be precise. By melting a slice over the slice of rye with the hole, the bread became part of a well integrated system and no longer solely controlled the destiny of the sandwich. It came to me that not the tuna, nor the rye and not even the cheese stood alone. Each would be contained and controlled to some extent by the other and anything was better than the congealed mystery meat that resided in a second translucent plastic container in the fridge. In the end, I got to enjoy what I like and maybe something a little different that made it even a little bit better.
Sorry, I meant to write about the elections and my decision to support and vote for John McCain as the best choice of what is available, but it’s lunch time… Vote for John McCain. He may not be perfect, and at times he might even be an air hole, but he’s better than mystery meat.
February, Maine and the effects of global warming…
Here it is, just about the end of February, and I can’t stand this heat. Every day is sunshine…just a little whiter and more powdery than I recall. We had 12″ of sunshine this past week, 11″ of sunshine yesterday, 3″ more today, and 15″ of sunshine scheduled for the weekend. In fact, this is a record year for sunshine in the Northeast.
The way I see it, if another Clinton, or Obama Husain Watchamacallit, from the great gun control state of Illinois, can be referred to as serious Presidential candidates, I guess I can be throwing sunshine.
My wife and I are actually having a lot of fun. We got off the plane from California and were met by nose freezing temperatures. The house, in retribution for being left alone for a few months, paid us back with a shop buried in accumulative snow drifts, a roof straining under the accumulation of a number of storms and a trash can stuck to the driveway. Fortunately, we know some really nice people who came over and dug us out so we could get back in operation. Geoff is the same guy who built the shop this past fall. Really nice folks. The way it works is, I get a great idea I’d like to build something. Reality sets in and I accept that I can’t. I call Geoff.
If you haven’t seen this before, here are a few pictures of the building just before the interior was painted. My wife and I went to Home Depot, and found a Sunset book on storage sheds and barns with a horse barn on the cover that we really liked. We showed Geoff the picture, asked if he could build it to a slightly different scale and that was about all the guidance he received from us, other than on very minor subjective points. He gave us a budget before any work started, he gave us regular status updates and he came in right on the money to his estimates. Over the next handful of months Geoff and his brother Gary excavated the lot and constructed what amounts to a piece of New England art.
The exterior is rough wood, barn siding, over timber framing and plywood sheathing. The big double doors hide a conventional double entry door, so they stay open when the shop is in operation. The barn doors were constructed for the building, as was the faux loft door above it. The floor is 18′ runs of spruce plank, the wainscot is more rough wood. The walls are timber framed so they are a true 6″ thick and insulated under sheetrock. The roof is 12 pitch so the interior ceiling is 20′ high with exposed beams and a loft. All of the window trim and shutters were constructed on site.
The stove is direct vent propane and, once we got the thermostat control sorted out, the weather tight building is efficient to heat. The scaffolding is still in place for painting, which is now done. I will post some pictures of the interior shortly.
I’ve lost control of the building, my wife and our good friend Cindy have taken over decorating what they refer to as a “really pretty building”. Everything is coated in satin clear poly, so I’ve been barred from moving anything in until it is clean. Geez.
If you’re in the greater Portland, ME area and you are looking for craftsmen who can design and construct a quality building, you might give Geoff Foster a call at 207-657-4130. Ask him to take you by and show you the shop.
Thanks,
Joe
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