Issue 561

Hoping This Time, It’ll Be Different …

It is January and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is cold.

Very cold, with temperatures in the past few days – and in the next couple of weeks – reaching below zero Fahrenheit. (For our friends using the Celsius temperature scale, that’s around negative 18 degrees centigrade – or lower.)

It’s the sort of cold that can lead to stir-craziness, especially if you don’t have an indoors-based hobby. My short-furred dog, for example, generally loves the outdoors. These days, she’ll ask to go out, do her business, then come back in within minutes. And then, a scant few minutes later, she’ll ask again to go back out – because she has forgotten (or refuses to believe) that, yes, it is still that cold out there.

Now, while I’m sure you’ve all heard the definition of insanity as repeating the same actions over and over again and expecting a different result, I’m also pretty sure that we’ve all done something of the like at times. And, while an indoor woodshop can be a cure for stir-craziness, it can also be the setting for some of these hope-springs-eternal situations.

So: have any stories to share of the times you’ve convinced yourself in the woodshop that, this time, it will be different?

(And yes, all of us here at Woodworker’s Journal in Minnesota are well aware that those of you who have moved to Florida, Arizona, etc., feel that you have discovered the cure for the winter blues – because you seem to enjoy taunting us with your warmth each winter.)

Joanna Werch Takes, Woodworker’s Journal