Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Looking inward... to the workshop, and to personal space.

© 2012 Joshua Stark

After seeing Mr. Fashion House's amazing hobby-shop, I knew I had to organize my space.  I'm now going to town on my workshop, having purchased not one, but TWO pegboards.  I just tore out some old shelving put up by some previous owner, and installed one of the pegboards, and I must say, it is looking much better.  So much better that I am beginning to believe in starting some projects again.

Of course, I was going to head out today to pick nettles and see if my old single-shot twenty gauge still worked, but today was the day Winter decided to come out here in California, so the rain sent me inside.  I'm not complaining about the rain - in fact, by putting me in the shed, it gave me a twinge of hope for a space that is mine, a rare commodity in a 900 sq. ft. house with two little children.

I'm not the type to bang my chest and say, "my ManCave, my Space!  You Go!" to my little, doe-eyed, amazing kids.  First of all, I've noticed that the ridiculous trend of putting "man" in front of words kinda makes things sound gay (not that there's anything wrong with that).  But, even if I did try to get all macho and keep them out, one (five year old) would just laugh at me and the other (16 months) would push me out of the way; he could do it, too.

Really, I wasn't raised to make a fuss for a grown-up space; I was raised that children are people just as adults are people, and so I give "my space" up for the time being.

How I get some space is through cunning mind-games:  First, just like drinking iced tea without sugar, or eating liver, I get space by making it boring or distasteful.  Second, I make it so that I can watch them in another space, and then make that space much more fun, while I do some of my own things. 

Do these tricks always work?  No.  For example, my children absolutely love liver.  They would eat it every day if they could.  But, do these tricks almost never work, but sound good?  Absolutely.  You see, kids like to do whatever grown-ups are doing, whether it be sitting on our butts watching some horribly inappropriate murder mystery, or building a bow.  As I've heard it put, "they'd want chocolate covered poop if you had it", and really, you don't even need the chocolate.  So for those of you with kids, no more crack!  And for those of you without kids, you had darn-well better absolutely flipping love children if you are going to have them, because they will be doing their darndest to give you a colonoscopy for years.

Right now, my wonderful kids are being watched by my absolutely amazing parents, and so I have time to do things that would be dangerous for them.  Okay, at this moment I'm typing, but in a few minutes I'll be vacuuming up rat feces (sadly, child labor laws prevent the latter from being delegated, but it is all for the Greater Good).  Soon, I will have a space to make better and faster bows and arrows with which my children may more effectively terrorize the neighborhood.

So, back to my shed before I get to run down and grab up my children.  And for the record, I absolutely flipping, head-over-heels love them.  

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Note:  To check my spelling, I occasionally type in the Google box the first part of a word; in this case, I typed "colon" because Blogspot here tells me that "colonoscopy" is misspelled (of course, it also says that "Blogspot" is misspelled).  Anyhoo, I thought I'd share the top ten choices that Google offers a person who types in "colon".  They are: colonoscopy, colon cancer, colon cleanse, colon, colonial life, colonial willamsburg, colonic, colonialism, colonial penn, colonel sanders.

That last one just threw me for a loop.

5 comments:

Gary Thompson said...

I avoid tools at all cost. Too much interference with my fishing. Should I occasionally fall into a pattern of fixing too many things at once, I'm quick to break something really important.

Josh said...

Gary, that is a wonderful philosophy.

bob said...

Hi,

Just found your blog and look forward to using some of your ideas and philosophy on foraging and fishing. Am living in China, down south in clear sky Yunnan where there is plenty of good local produce and some game (http://chinaharvest.blog.com/). I am very excited about the resurgence of foraging, seems to be very big in north america.. Here there is much to forage, mainly in the pine forests where there are mushrooms galore. Will make your site a regular visit

Josh said...

Hey, Bob! Thanks for stopping by.

Yeah, foraging is getting to be quite an "in" thing right now. It's fun, and a bit easier for folks who want to get connected to their local wild spaces but have no hunting or fishing experience.

I'll be checking out your blog soon!

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