I am beginning to think I forget to take pictures of half my projects. When I do, it is usually just the final product. I will work on that.

Today started with Vivian's hair dryer. The cord had finally been twisted enough times, it shorted out where it goes into the handle.

Got a spare dryer out.  Flipped breaker. No power. Once I got her out the door I started working on the problem. It turns out that the outlets for both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are on the same circuit. No problem, but why no power? Turns out the "one" outlet, with a little gvi switch for safety, is upstairs. Good! Well..not good. But good I do not have to fix a cobbled up wiring job on a new house.

So....being me, I eyeballed the hair dryer and decided to fix it. I have a solder gun and solder in the garage. Why not? Pulled unit apart. Unsoldered cord from both switches. Cut off bad end. Soldered back onto switches. Put together. Works fine.

I am still getting used to the idea that everyone doesn't just fix everything. Vivian said she paid about $100 for it 6 years ago. It is a good little machine. Maybe it will last a few more years.

I put together my paint mixer/tumbler this week.

I had a smaller one I used for cleaning brass when reloading shells when shooting a lot. It was rather small and although I could put small spray cans on it to mix while I got ready to paint. I could not use it in anything larger than quarts.

I realized when I was doing Mary Lee's bottom paint that I wanted to mix gallon cans the same way. The motor is a shoe shine machine. It works great. I epoxied the old pulley, from the little motor that came on the old tumbler, onto a piece from the shoe shiner. Added a vacuum cleaner belt and it works great.

Speaking of shoes. Vivian had work shoes that were still in good shape. Just scuffed enough they needed re-dyed.

I did six pairs. Deglazed them first. I could have used acetone but had deglazer. Dyed them. Then used my airbrush to put the protective finish on. It is a finish designed for leather. Flexible and water resistant.

I built the frame for Vivian's dream board this week. I had attached eyebolts to a bedroom wall so she could do her exercises before bed.

She wanted to put up pictures of tropical places we may see boating.

I got my hearing aides.

Pretty neat hearing all those small sounds I had been missing.

I built a jig so I could have router set up horizontal. The router table is great, but I have found it lacking.

The router mounted this way allows different things to be done. I also realise that I will have to build a better router table sometime.

 I have outgrown the one I bought.


I finally got around to repainting the stool I built for the bathroom.

It got a coat of flat white when built. Kind of had that whitewash look and looked interesting. So I left it. Noticed it was looking a bit bare the other day. I know Vivian was expecting white when she got home. I thought the bathroom could use a splash of color.

Therapy continues to help. I am sleeping better. A lot of that really overwhelming fatigue, I have battled for so long now, is easing up. It is freezing outside right now. This is the first time since I got hurt, that I am doing projects during the cold stretches. Only a couple months until I hit my two year anniversary of stopping the pain pills. Last winter at this time, it was all I could do, sometimes, to get breakfast dishes cleaned up before Vivian got home in the evening.

Can you just imagine how good this summer will be? I have much planned.

Definitely not going to crash clown bike this year! 😉