Overheard at Lem's

It is cold right this minute and I should be working but I am waiting for it to warm up a bit. Chip Ahoy mentioned The Raft of the Medusa, a painting by Théodore Gericault. It is a large painting and once seen not easily forgotten.

One of my sons is a genius when it comes to painting and while he was in school he painted this:

The minute I saw it I cracked up - it is a painting of articles of clothing arranged so that the composition and light mimic Gericault's painting. My son is a funny guy, just sayin'. I keep trying to buy the original from him but somehow that never happens. No inheritance for you!

This requires water music.

The story of a white oak tree

Back in 2015 a friend told me she had some oak pieces in her back yard and asked if I wanted any. "Red oak, right?" "Nope, white oak - it was struck by lightning the other night." "Did that wake you up?" "Yep, it was only 30 feet from the house."

So I went and investigated - by the time I got there most of the good pieces had been split for firewood, but I did manage to get a couple of nice pieces:

I rough turned it, coated it, set it aside to dry and this week set about finish turning it. Here's what it looked like after drying for three years:

I took the picture at that angle to show how much the piece had distorted while drying. It was a real struggle to turn - I used the Jumbo Jaws (tm) to hold it while I turned the foot round - it had ovalized to the point that it was close to a half inch longer than it was wide:

The bowl also had a hole clean through it:

You can see daylight through it!

At this stage the piece weighed 5.15 pounds - heavy!

So I put it on my lathe, used a grinder to turn down the foot, and once that was done, reversed it and gripped the foot with the 4 jaw chuck. Then I used my 7" Makita body grinder to smooth it out enough so that I could begin turning it. The piece was so out-of-round that even a tool as benign as a scraper would cause it to fly off the lathe - can't have that.

After hours of grinding I was finally able to use my bowl gouge and get it to near net shape. Rough deal, I'll tell ya what!

But I persisted and this is what I got:

Top view:

Finished weight 3.75 pounds - still not light, but at least there is over a pound of white oak sawdust in my shop now.

All because lightning struck a white oak tree back in 2015.

I can handle it.

Happy birthday, George!

We can Handel it.

But wait, there is more!

That's a picture of my back yard back in the early 18th century.

Merry Christmas!

Music has always been an important part of Christmas for me, and this piece sums up the day better than any other I know:

Merry Christmas to us, one and all.

Addendum, where better to include a carol:

What is good in life, Sixty?

To buy and sell, to create and clean up, to warm oneself by the fire, to feel the warmth of the sun, to work and to walk, to meet and greet dogs, to spend time with a 15 year old dog who knows what is good in life, and to see what beauty nature holds and to be here enjoying the day.

I have also watched way too many teevee shows. Some have great visual effects, excellent production values, but the story telling is so bad it makes the shows unwatchable. I want to watch muh stories but they really drag on way too long. On a more cheerful note, here is the third of three great composers born in 1685 - talk about an alignment of stars!

Handel, low and slow. 1685 strikes again.

Ombra

Sometimes when it is overcast and misty one might feel down in the dumps. Not me - I was literally down in the dump - what a great place!

I hauled over some steel, iron and aluminum I had been collecting. It is a great adventure - you and your truck are weighed on a scale, you drive over by "That Shivalay pickup", drop off some of the load, go back over the scale "Customers must stay in vehicle!" then over to the aluminum place. More backin' an' forthin', I get my final receipt and off to the pay shack, and while walking in I see the corporate mission statement is printed at the bottom - including the words "Asperational Value:...". Being me I mentioned to the nice woman working inside that there is a typo on their receipt. She was as sweet as she could be and set right to fixin' it. 

This evening's musical selection relates to a previous comment. Ombra mai fu.