Ohio Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Frosty sent a message this morning to let me know about Thomas Powers and Glenn. I am sad. I planned to have a fire this week as it's cold but dry, and I'll raise a glass to each. The toast, "To absent friends," or "Fire is pretty." Maybe both. The fire I planned is to burn some scribbled pages for the new book*, which ash kept me underwater for the past year or so. There is no blacksmith in this one, though there is in the next (or the one after that) and I was hoping to get help for research, etc. from this community, esp. TP as he was a neverending fount of information. But sometimes the fount does end and to paraphrase Glenn, there are many here I think of frequently (look at you, Frosty) and only swear a little (again, looking at you Frosty), and while I won't say I love you as I require dinner and dancing before admitting to that, I will say I have respect and fondness of the generosity, humor, and welcome I have found here. And in the effort to be a better visitor to the joint, I may start telling the story of How I Built My Belt Grinder, still in progress and complete with crappy welds and a huge mistake I made last week that I still have to correct (angle grind) and re-do. *I burn note pages from the manuscript I'm working on as fuel for my imagination. I don't burn books, but my notes are of no use to anyone and I am just superstitious enough to believe fire will release the words so they can re-arrange themselves and come back when I'm ready. Now that I just re-read what I wrote, it sounds kinda dumb. Oh, well. Kinda dumb is wort of my thing. While Frosty's tenet is, "dum vivimus vivamus" (while you live, live), mine is more like, "dumb vivimus vivamus," (while you live, do something dumb). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 The words in those notes may have lit somebody elses fire that came after you. But I understand. I am supersticious too. About some things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Tank you Steve, our Ohio is BACK!! Do you hand write story notes? I only do that when I'm away from my computer, as in not in the house or on the road somewhere. The printer paper I have almost won't burn at all it's so loaded with Kaolin. You could almost put fires out throwing it on. Have pictures of your belt sander build? I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Get your minds out of the gutter guys! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Always good to hear from you Ohio. I don't see anything there as dumb, but hey, we as humans do do some dumb things, might get boring if we didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Posted November 29, 2023 Author Share Posted November 29, 2023 Frosty, I have notebooks from when I'm away from a computer, like at night when I can't sleep or early in the morning when I can't sleep, or when I'm outside or in the shop, and I can't sleep. Oh, wait, no—I don't sleep in the shop, that would be dangerous. But I have little notebooks in there and they get full of all kinds of things. My belt grinder is in my pal's shop/garage. He wanted to build them together, mostly to watch me make every possible mistake before he started his. Working out for him, let me tell you. Right now he's unavailable (and I don't like working in his shop without him there) for the next week or so. We have a lot of fun, though these one-week projects turn into multi-month things. Ah, I don't care. He's a good guy and it's a blast to do stuff over there. BTW I use a typewriter, too, esp. with an early draft. I have a bad habit of going back to revise when I need to just keep going forward. I wrote my first two books on a 1930's LC Smith & Corona that died a while back. Now I have a 1970s Smith-Corona portable, but what I really want is a Blickensderfer? Why, you ask? So I can say "Blickensderfer," duh. Das, don't let my sterling prose fool you. I do several dumb things every single day. I have a knack for it. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of this build. After the belt grinder is a mount for my Di-Acro bender. I saw this one guy mounted his on a trailer hitch, so he could use his truck for a counterweight and I thought, "That's the deal for me." The Wonder Hut is still a nightmare-ish armpit of a mess. I made a Dracula coffin out of foam for Halloween and stuck it in there and it's just in the way. I mean, it looks really good for a foam-based Halloween prop, but it's big and I have to get it up on the upper shelves and it's been cold and I'm delicate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I can say that a lot of us have missed you and consider you like a sister, or at least I do. I was not fortunate enough to have a sister, just an older brother to fight with. I love your writing style and so does Debi, she sometimes reads over my shoulder and when you posted about the retort, she said move over and took my seat at the computer. Some day I'll get around to building one. Hope you are staying healthy and happy and visit here once in a while. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 You can also think of several impossible things everyday and live like Alice in wonderland. I won't lie, I do dumb things all the time. I also think of impossible things. If I had any bit of money I would be dangerous. Glad you are having fun building and still making things whatever they might be. I built a life size wooden coffin years ago. Had a motor to open and close the lid with a skeletal hand coming out from inside. That was put up in the woods against a pine tree many years ago and is likely returning to the earth as we speak. Haven't checked on it or used it in years. I do have some halloween skeletons hanging out in my shop. Needed a place till next halloween and they find fun things to do in my shop. One hangs from a horse yoke or whatever it is called. He never even made it out for halloween. Just hangs out in the shop now. I have had some old typewriters in the past but no longer have them and couldn't say what they were. Sold them at the fleamarket for next to nothing and then learned the buyer only wanted them to make jewelry from the keys. Live and learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Posted November 30, 2023 Author Share Posted November 30, 2023 Irondragon, you are very kind. And back at you. Hope you and Debi are doing well, healthy and happy and all. The retort isn't hard to build and I will say when it's working and the chimney sounds like a jet engine, it's pretty neat. And you can see the offgases burning in the pyrolysis process, which I like because it starts with pyro. I like making stuff. I made a bunch of fancy cutting boards and stuff—we have a small business to sell honey, beeswax, soap, candles, all that crap, and we added the wood products. I like making stuff —it's fun and my risk of arrest is much lower. Das, we go into the big city for Halloween at my friend's house. Her entire basement is full of Halloween props, including many, many, many skeletons— or "skellertons" as I like to say. Years ago one of those local haunted house operations was going out of business and we essentially bought all their crap. Took two trips in her F250 to get everything back to her house. Buying all of it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. We have since weeded out a lot of stuff, but there are plastic crates jammed with terror that remain. Every year I swear I'm going to get it all organized and, like the Wonder Hut, I fail in such a massive way, my failure has it's own gravity. And reading what happened to those typewriters, that's a tragedy on par with human trafficking <- this is a joke. But dang, that bums me out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 Welcome back! On 11/29/2023 at 12:24 PM, Ohio said: "dum vivimus vivamus" (while you live, live) More precisely, "While we are alive, let us live." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 We only have so much time to play. I get it. "I'll eventually get to that." I have tons of ideas for other halloween props as well. I haven't had the time i used to to go all out decorating for halloween. Maybe when my girls get a little older and can help more and require less supervision. Just keep moving and do what you can when you can. Yeah sad about the typewriters. I only tear apart dysfunctional stuff to make art from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 Meanwhile, at the industrial surplus warehouse, this was added to their website today: No surprise about the Condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Posted November 30, 2023 Author Share Posted November 30, 2023 And JHCC comes across with a potential moneymaking opportunity. Srsly, we have dozens and dozens of skellertons, of all sizes, most of which were purchased from a defunct chiropractor school by the defunct haunted house. Maybe I could finance that new welder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 How realistic are they ohio? If they came from a school they are probably good quality. Good quality skeletons fetch a premium. The cheap ones they sell now are even $40. or so. While they are getting better with some of the articulations, they aren't the best looking for realism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeJustice Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 I think that it is hilarious that the skeletons' condition is listed as "used". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Well DUH! If they're real bone of course, otherwise I'm sure you could buy brand new unused fake ones. IN 26 years we've had exactly one party of trick or treaters, two kids and dad but we had candy and put on a small stock yearly just in case. My Brother in law in S. Cal. loves decorating their place and his Halloweens are pretty spectacular, animated ghosts, skeletons, corpses, fog, light show, etc. He does Christmas, Easter, St. Patty's, 4th of July, (I've seen that one) and others I think. There are neighborhoods around here that are well worth touring and the state fairgrounds puts on Halloween and Christmas displays. I don't know if the Halloween display was a one off or is till being done, I didn't see TV ads about it. Deb and I hit the Christmas lights there yearly in conjunction with dining out at the Palmer Hotel. The only 24/7 restaurant I know of in the Valley. It makes for an enjoyable evening and the restaurant is usually pretty packed with folks coming from the fairgrounds. It's sort of a community party, low key but lots of friendly folks talking about Christmas, good neighborhoods and homes to look at lights, etc. We string colored chasing lights on the upper north deck, once the leaves are gone it's the only part of the house visible to other folks. I think I'll forge some Christmas ornaments ALA Thomas Powers and send them to family and friends this year. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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