Frank gave his children – my wonderful cousins – the gift of story, and the gift of can-do! As a very direct result, his memorial service resulted in many tears, and much laughter. Frank would be proud.

These are my simple word sketches of Frank’s life and spirit:

• The young man of the depression is working a poor farm in Minnesota, and treks to Washington to work in the woods in the winter and treks back to Minnesota in the summer. Treks? Right – with a thumb in the air and hopping freights. That’s can-do.
• The young man gets a letter from his sweetheart in Minnesota. He says, “I don’t like the sound of what’s going on there”, packs his bag, sticks out his thumb and heads to Minnesota to make things right. That’s can-do.
• The father of six finds that the money doesn’t stretch as far as it needs to, so he decides that two jobs are better than one. That’s can-do.
• The older man finds that the social security check doesn’t go as far as he’d like. He says, I like trips to the woods … so now he’s a woodcutter. That’s can-do.
• I congratulate the old man on his first hole-in-one. He says, ‘Not much to it. If you spend 40 years trying, eventually it’s going to go in the hole”. That’s can-do.
• The old man talks to his older brother, who complains that he can’t find anyone who can do a new cedar shingle roof. The old man says, “No problem. I can do that. It will be a nice visit”. That’s can-do.

Thank you Frank, for  your may stories, and your example of a life well-lived!

Yesterday I rode 30 miles – a bit much – on the Denver & Rio Grande Rail Trail. The ride was from Clinton to Farmington and back. I rode more than I should have, because I was curious whether the trail had finally been extend to connect with the Legacy Parkway Trail. Indeed it has! I’m very fortunate to have such a trail just a half mile from the house. That makes about 30 miles of connected trail (and 60 miles round trip). I should get to the sixty mile ride before the snow flies!

Here’s yesterday’s 30 mile ride:

Route on Google Maps

Here’s today’s 17 mile ride:
Route on Google Maps

2) Perhaps more auspicious is the signal event of 60.0 in a few short months.

3) A number of years ago, I read a health article which suggested that the decade of the 50′s was the last chance for people to “get in shape!” At least statistically, folks who are not in shape on their 60th birthday, are more prone to health declines in their 60′s and 70′s. I took that to heart. I took off 60 pounds. I rode the bike. Even rode 100 miles in the Salt Lake Century. That year, I rode the bike more than 3000 miles. But I haven’t been so kind to my body these past 3 years. 30 pounds are back and I’ve ridden less than 300 miles all year.

Therefore:
I proclaim that on April 1, 2012 — the 60th anniversary of my birth — I will ride the bicycle 100 miles.

Who wants to join me?

PS
I’d better get to training!

Content there will be growing, but I’m pleased to have the starting point live. Check another thing off my list! I said it would be done by April 1, and so it is.

If you visit the site, and have thoughts about how it could be more effective, let me know! Thanks.

ACT II Simply Clean Carpet & Upholstery Care, Clearfield UT
After leaving the Brand X call, I started calling local Google listings for carpet cleaners. I connected with Stephen Galloway, owner of Simply Clean. I told him my story of woe. Steve had already done a day’s work, and had just arrived home. But he said, “Gee do you have all that furniture moved? … OK … How about I come over and do the job in about 20 minutes?” 20 minutes later he was here setting up his equipment.

As you might assume, I’m writing this just because I believe folks who know how to provide good service should be rewarded. Well that’s Stephen of Simply Clean Carpet & Upholstery Care. I was totally impressed with his service attitude, and as you might expect, the cleaning was top notch!

If you are in Davis County Utah ( Clinton, Clearfield, Syracuse, Layton, etc) I whole-heartedly recommend this company for your carpet cleaning needs!

Simply Clean Carpet & Upholstery Care Inc.
Clearfield UT 84015
801-546-3444

I won’t say its done, because it probably never will be. But after finishing a project and getting ready to start a new one, it was pretty clean so I thought I’d share photos.

The sweetest part to me, right now, is the radiant floor heat. I did the final plumbing two weeks ago and fired up the heating unit (80 gallon 75,000 btu water heater in the attic). Temperatures outside have been in the teens. The shop floor has been a constant 73 degrees. Hmmmm. Nice. After Christmas I worked on a project with my daughter, Erin, who was in town for the holiday. I smiled when I saw that she’d kicked off her shoes and was standing in stocking feet while applying finish to the work.

It was really none to soon. Most of the last two weeks have been “Red” pollution days along the Wasatch Front, and wood burning has been prohibited. (I guess it wouldn’t have stopped me from burning a good hot fire in the woodstove, but I really don’t want to be a part of the problem.)

A slideshow of the shop is here:
Slide show on Flickr

If you mouse over the show, you will find a “STOP” button in the lower left, which will allow you to progress at your own rate. If you click on the center of the photo a description will be displayed.

One of Ev’s attitudes was, “The boss is not always right and the boss doesn’t need to know everything.” It suited him well, and by my observation, it suited the boss pretty well too, because Ev did his job and didn’t rub it in too much when the boss was wrong. This particular attitude came to bear on both sides of the equation one day when Ev and I were tasked with unloading some steel rebar from the flatbed trailer behind the Freightliner. Setting off to the task, I’m pretty sure that two things were true. First, I’m pretty sure that the boss told us to unload it by hand. Second, I’m also pretty sure that Ev said it was a damn shame that the company wouldn’t buy any decent equipment, because it just doesn’t make any sense to pull off all that re-bar by hand.

Ev described the job in slightly different terms than the boss. He explained that we’d hook a chain to the two tons of re-bar and link it up under the bucket of our ancient loader. I’d lift the load, and he’d pull the trailer out from under it. It was not a bad plan, except for the load rating and condition of the old loader. It was quite a contraption. It operated without modern hydraulics. The lift mechanism consisted of a cable and drum affair. When the lift clutch was engaged the cable would wind about the drum and the load would rise. The skill of the operator was much more important on the descent. A gentle nudge of the hand to the left on the control lever would cause the drum brake to slip and the load to descend. With the two tons of steel hanging below the bucket, I gave the lever a gentle nudge and the load began to descend with surprising speed. Then I made a mistake. For some silly reason I thought a slow descent would be preferable. I gave the lever a gentle nudge to the right and the drum brake grabbed with an absolute finality. Gravity took care of the rest and everything was instantly on the ground except for the rear wheel of the loader, which implies of course that the loader was no longer horizontal. It was definitely vertical. While my face was still plastered to the windshield, Ev came around and questioned, “Are you OK?”

I affirmed that I was just fine, though slightly upside-down.

Then the second part of the attitude kicked in, “We’d better get this thing set upright before the boss sees it!”

I had to agree. Ev pulled out a chain, brought over a little forklift, pulled on the tail end of the loader and it came down with a bounce.

In 1970, the aging Freightliner was replaced with a somewhat newer model. Ev was OK with that, but he did think that the boss fell a little short of the mark when he bought a new truck without power steering and with a pretty awful paint job. But Ev was up to the challenge. He bought a power steering unit with his own money and installed it on his own time. It was a successful negotiation, I guess. As to the paint job, Ev did the work, and I’m pretty sure that he got paid for it. Well, all except for the blue stripe. Every Dennis Company truck was white, without a hint of color, except for the red lettering on the side. Ev just decided that the truck was going to have a blue stripe. A small protest from the proletariat, but a protest none the less. I liked the paint job and told him so. It was then that Ev hit me with some country wisdom that I’d never heard before, but will always be with me. With his aw-shucks attitude he said simply, “A good paint job, can cover up a multitude of sins.”

This weekend I cleaned up my 1961 Delta unisaw, and gave it a good paint job. I’m certain that Ev was there in spirit. I think he’d like the paint job.

Before	After

For my new shop, and especially for piano action regulation I wanted a nice assembly table, but also I wanted it to be adjustable in height. The pictures below show my creation.

The adjustable height will allow me to do action regulation work comfortably in both sitting and standing positions. The table top is 3′ X 5′ and the surface is dead flat within 0.5 mm. The flat table was constructed in as a torsion box, pretty much as described by the “Wood Whisperer” in this article. It features an oak apron which sits 1/4″ proud of the table top. This allows a 1/4″ piece of masonite to lay inside the apron. When the work surface becomes marred, it can easily be replaced. That’s a nice feature!

I created the adjustable height mechanism by adapting an adjustable height cart sold by Harbor Freight. I removed the wheels and handle from the cart and fitted it to the base. The table top is fastened with lag screws and plenty of construction adhesive. There is a small amount of side play in the mechanism, so the table wouldn’t be suitable for much pounding and hammering, but that’s not what I had in mind. At all heights it is very stable vertically. The table has plenty of mass (about 300 pounds), which enhances its stability.

Minimum working height of the table is 24 inches.


Maximum working height of the table is 48 inches.

This is today’s view looking north from the north of the island. It seems to capture the landscape’s ethereal nature.

The numbers from the ride: