Musings

Some Self-instruction For 2020

I generally consider New Year’s Resolutions to be wishful thinking at best and sanctimonious posturing at worst, but I do find the practice of setting realistic goals to be a useful guide and reminder for the future.  Mine range from the mundane to the transcendent.  Here are a few of them, in no particular order:

Organize the pile of stuff in the barn (and get rid of that which simply occupies space unproductively).  The mantra for the year is Crap is Crap.

Think strategically about my long-term goal of consolidating my tools to the size of a cargo van.

Improve my skills at the bench.  All of them.  And add new ones.

Add some needed wiring in the barn, including a 220v circuit to the basement, thus bringing my larger machines on line.

Find new homes for machines and tools I do not need.

Come to a better understanding of the barn’s power system.

Complete  the Period Finisher’s Manual manuscript; quit overthinking every chapter, section, description, sentence, and word, and get something into the hands of Chris Schwarz.  Seriously, get over yourself and get it done.

Complete the glazed doors for the book cases in the library.

Build at least two more Gragg chairs.

Figure out how to connect Mel’s Wax with the furniture caretakers for whom it would be a benefit.

Become comfortable with, and bring on-line, YouTube and Instagram content. (Twitter and Facebook are not part of the equation)

Get my foundry up and running, leading to —

Complete the patterns and prototype for H.O. Studley’s piano maker’s vises and get production moving on his mallet.

Paint the barn, or better yet find someone who will.

Embrace and encourage (and listen to) my loved ones more regularly.

Get involved in public discourse.  The proper time to foster community and liberty and resist totalitarian collectivism and libertinism is always now.

Be less frustrated and angry about the effects of aging, like the inevitable loss of strength and flexibility, but especially my diminishing visual acuity.

And finally,

Be more impassioned, knowledgeable, discerning, gracious, and devout in living out my Faith in The Redeemer.