Musings

To Mordor and Back

A couple weeks ago I ventured into the barbarous climes of Mordor to deliver the workbench to the Library of Congress Book Conservation group.  If the traffic and multitude of high-dollar construction projects are any indication, the travails of the provinces are not being felt in the capital city.  In fact it looks like a boom town that has four trillion of our dollars at its disposal every year.  And since we apparently are not motivated enough to demand that they stop spending those four trillion dollars every year on us, that trend line will remain unchanged.

The logistics of getting into a secured facility (and in Mordor virtually every facility is secured) is a challenge.  It turned out that the most efficient way to get the workbench into LC was for me to drop it off at the curb in front, with LC staff taking delivery of it there.  Once I parked and rejoined them we were able to get through the security checkpoint and proceed to the conservation lab.  Admittedly, I felt under dressed with my Victorinox Spirit muti-tool sitting in the van outside.

The path to the final home for the workbench was uneventful, and the crew there was delighted to get their new tool.  Particularly pleased were the petite members of the staff, many of whom wrote me a “Thank You” note for taking their physiques into consideration when fabricating the variable height configuration of the bench.

The bench fit perfectly into the tiny Tool Room space they have, and after I spent a little time explaining its features it was given some tryouts almost immediately.

And then I escaped before the Dark Eye poisoned my heart any more.