Starting in the past

I am not a writer.

I am not very computer literate.

Bear with me, I hope I can get this to all work.

I got hurt some years ago, and lost enough ability to stop me from doing what I loved for a living.   You see, I was always somewhat mechanically inclined.  I started out working in various mechanical fields.  I worked on transports, and cars and mining machinery.  Growing up in Sudbury Ontario during the 70's and 80's I had to learn to fix just about anything as work was hard to come by and I could not buy new.

With a young family starting out, I moved to London Ontario to try my luck at the greener grass that is (was) the huge manufacturing sector.  I worked various jobs mostly in the automotive parts manufacturing and was working in a fairly highly skilled position setting up, maintaining, and running equipment that made bearings.  Then one day my knee did not like moving a heavy bin of product and let go.  Complications with a DVT delayed surgery and I came out of the operating room in worse shape than I went in.  I now live with pain every day, and phlebitus from the DVT makes wearing a compression stocking to keep the blood flowing necessary.

But I lost more than my ability to walk normal and do the things that years of experience had made me pretty good at.  I kind of lost myself.  My whole identity up to that point was that I fixed things.  I could make them run well, and make them look good doing it too.  I loved making things run.  I liked to tinker and experiment and I was in a pretty good place to do it too.

Then I lost it.

That is the sad part of the story.

Turn the page.

I am someone else now.  Not sure who but I am experimenting.  I can't find a job at what I am good at, because I can't physically do it any more.  I don't have very many other skills.  But, I have lots of interests.

Woodworking has always been on my list of things I liked.  Tinkering too as I alluded to earlier.  Fate and time have come together to allow me the opportunity to build a small shop.  I am going to experiment and try to learn some new skills.  This spring will be the ground breaking and I hope to get lots of pictures of the build, maybe video too if I can find a camera.  I hope to put it together and join a growing community of internet woodworkers/makers that have inspired me.

I have a few things that I have made while getting on this path.  Until the shop build starts I will post some of my projects that I have already completed or are in progress.

For the first entry though, this is it.  It was difficult getting things down and organizing my thoughts.  I hope I get better at this.

oh, a logo I came up with a few years ago.

More later, thanks for stopping by.