Keep Trying

I was raised by a thrifty mother and a very creative father. This was reinforced by some incredibly industrious uncles on my dad's side and some hard ass entrepreneurs on my mom's side.

So when I drive down my street and see a dismantled, all wood swing set / castle I think, "I could put that back together!"

So 9pm on Sunday I load the truck and drive the quarter mile back to the house with a 12ft slide precariously balanced on the roof.

Monday comes and I start piecing it back together.  Catastrophic wood rot, believe it or not, is hard to see in the dark. I also noticed a fresh pile of wooden fort in the neighbor's yard...so I only got half.  

No dramas though, I can use what I have to build a custom fort for the bug...later...ish.

Ok I need a win so I am going to use the wood to built a moto stand that I've been putting off buying.  And hell, I am going to blog about it!

Here is what I started with. I disassemble the parts and draw a design. The radio is going and I've got that rhythm and focus that I only get in the shop.

All the cuts are made and I assemble...but it looks worse than...it's just bad.  Who knew you had to use angles other than 45 degrees?!?!?

Time to get creative, which in Kaiser terms (at least the Texas chapter) means hasty; requires a lot of gut feeling.  What I made looked super cool, but crumbled under the pressure of the bike.

I'm not one to get frustrated easily, so after throwing a few tools and screaming expletives, I counted down from ten and decided that while I'm no good at this today, I've got the rest of my life to figure it out.

I grew up thinking my dad and uncles* could fix anything, but now that I am a young father I see that these things take time, mistakes and patience. I'm pretty far along, especially under the hood of a car, but I still have a ways to go. The important thing is to get out here and enjoy trying.

*Uncle Greg is an exception.  I am pretty sure he could fix anything as early as 5 yrs old.