Ups & Downs, Downs, Downs

This week has been a bit of a wash, honestly. On Tuesday morning I cut my left index finger to a painful-enough degree that I needed to get it stitched-up at the ER for safety's sake (I couldn't tell how deep it was with that geyser of red that happens when you cut a finger). Yes, I was cutting art prints with an X-Acto -- something ironic because I'm using bandsaws, chisels, and all manner of sharp objects all day long at work. I haven't been to an ER since I was in elementary school!

The good bit is that I'll probably be back to playing "like normal" in a couple weeks or so and I can play bass with my ring and middle in the meantime (my pinky's always been useless), though it sure slows me up in the workshop.

In addition, the kids (and family) have been on the sick side, so they've been snagging me for story-time and whatnot. Aside from light setup work and minor repairs, I've been getting my consignors caught-up on payments, doing bookwork, fixing things up in the shop, and playing around with trying to figure out a new format for the blog. Don't worry -- it won't happen unless I find something that's better -- rather than just new.

In my "extra time" I've been making various pies (see above) with our "harvest" ingredients and driving the wife crazy with "fixing" our lighting and decorations both in the house and the shop. The pic above is an old punched lantern that I converted to a light for our dining area. It gives a spot at the table and some sparkle on the walls. That's the kind of stuff puttering-about leads to.

The shop also now boasts a full assortment of nice-looking, efficient, and silent LED lighting downstairs that's really made the whole place feel a lot more welcoming and easier to manage (at least for my eyes). A few years ago we removed all the old fluorescent fixtures and installed a mix of new and antique ceiling fixtures intended for regular bulbs. LED bulbs were still so darn expensive at the time that we just stuck a bunch of CFL bulbs in which, while better than the old and gloomy tube fluorescents, still drove me a bit crazy. It seems like every 10th bulb had some sort of hum, too.

So -- keeping mellowly busy during "sick" days yields dividends, I suppose. Keep an eye on the blog, though, as I'm still plunking-out repairs.