tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post4385239991673649855..comments2023-12-22T04:08:35.462-05:00Comments on Tetanus Burger: ToolsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-49463394401133976322013-05-21T01:12:25.712-04:002013-05-21T01:12:25.712-04:00Big old necropost because I think this story needs...Big old necropost because I think this story needs to be passed around more. The folks in the MIT computer lab, who are all about detail work, invented a very useful term: yak shaving.<br /><br />See, you need to get back the weed trimmer you lent to your neighbor last week. But first you have to put the hook it goes on in your garage back into the wall. But it fell out because it wiggled around a bit every time you took down the weed trimmer or hung it up, so the hole is now too big. So you have to somehow rearrange the other tools you have racked on the wall to accommodate a big hangy-downy thing. Or maybe you'll have to figure out what to get rid of on the third shelf down so you can just lay the weed trimmer there. One trip to the recycle bins later, you realize that while this is a good idea in concept, every.single.shelf is going to have to be unloaded, moved a hole further apart from the shelves above and below, and then reloaded, and while you've got all of the stuff off the shelves it's probably time for another trip to the recycle bin or possibly the donations room at the thrift store. And you can't just move the bottom shelf down a couple holes and park the fricking weed trimmer there because that's the only shelf the kids can reach and they need their chalk and bubbles to be there. ANYWAY, two more trips to remove stuff from the garage and you're ready to go ask for the weed trimmer.<br /><br />Except that you now recall that the neighbor lent you his special lower back pillow when you messed up your back taking out that sickly tree earlier this year and you need to return it because that's what good neighbors do. So now you have to find the damn thing.<br /><br />Eventually your younger daughter unearths the special pillow from beneath the cat. Off your incredulous look, she explains that she figured it was old and junky and fit only for the cat after she had so much fun jumping up and down on it that it split.<br /><br />After a deeeeeeeeep breath and a silent chant of "I love my kids, I <i>love</i> my kids," you examine the split pillow. Maybe you can just buy some fresh batting and restuff the thing. You have some thread that matches the fabric.<br /><br />Except that the stuff inside isn't batting. It's . . . hair?<br /><br />Googling the info on the attached tag turns up an ad for this pillow, which gets its extra super special springiness from 100 percent virgin yak hair, and only yak hair.<br /><br />Which is how, in order to be able to trim the weeds, you find yourself calling every ranch, zoo, and safari park in the tri-state area in the hopes that one of them owns a yak, and will let you shave it.<br /><br />Yak shaving: the boggling amount of apparently unrelated tasks that may have to be accomplished before you can <i>just fricking do that one simple thing.</i><br /><br />I have been reading forward through this blog, and I am frankly awestruck at the prodigious amount of yak shaving you have already done in your quest for a clean home and a yard free of booby traps. Hang in there! That yak will be naked sooner or later.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-22763853839012372292011-02-13T11:26:16.516-05:002011-02-13T11:26:16.516-05:00Oh, I'm highly in favor of ruthless (in fact, ...Oh, I'm highly in favor of ruthless (in fact, now that you have all the actual junk out, I think you should get an auctioneer or estate saler in to clean sweep the rest). I just suffer from The Fear, that I might be turning into my dad, and it sounded like you might too.Rosanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-71927516061051277792011-02-12T14:54:46.568-05:002011-02-12T14:54:46.568-05:00Also try: The Tool Shed, in Waltham, MA. It'...Also try: The Tool Shed, in Waltham, MA. It's a used tool store. The owner may be interested in purchasing some of your excess. 781-647-7970<br /><br />Hope the Tool Shed and/or the Eliot School are able to help you out.<br /><br /> - Massachusetts Woodworking WidowAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-64756181662153553752011-02-12T09:34:19.136-05:002011-02-12T09:34:19.136-05:00Community woodworking school in Jamaica Plain:
ht...Community woodworking school in Jamaica Plain:<br /><br />http://www.eliotschool.org/category/category/woodworking-furniture-upholstery<br /><br />Good people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-81372586488478969202011-02-11T17:09:59.669-05:002011-02-11T17:09:59.669-05:00Well, Elaine, the problem is that it's not tha...Well, Elaine, the problem is that it's not that at the end of this we'll have a pile of 20 or so files to wonder about keeping; it's that, even with the paring down we've been doing, we'll have a pile of 200 files. Even with the passes we've already made, the sheer amount of things is just enormous.<br /><br />Though I do understand that it will take some more thinking. I can imagine for example, ending up with like 10 hand planers, and keeping them until I get a chance to actually use them and see which one(s) I like best as far as fitting my hand, that sort of thing. <br /><br />But really, we simply can't keep everything.<br /><br />I'm thinking of tracking down a woodworkers' forum and joining it so I can ask, say, what are the twenty hand tools you can't live without? What do you need to run a decent shop? that sort of thing. Because I don't know right now as I don't have that much experience.<br /><br />Rosa, I get that it's totally normal, I do. It's just that it's been several passes already and we've gotten to a point of being bewildered, so I think the only way through it is to start being ruthless. There really is far more than here than would make a 'normal' situation.Thaliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09948272740932982138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-45962778749329148872011-02-10T20:45:26.094-05:002011-02-10T20:45:26.094-05:00Even though the churning is a hoarder thing, the &...Even though the churning is a hoarder thing, the "getting a lot of stuff on one pass through, letting it simmer in your backbrain for a while, and then go back through and get rid of a lot more" is totally, totally, totally normal.<br /><br />I don't know what happens in a hoarder's subconscious, but "realize a lot of the junk in that drawer really is junk" is definitely not it.Rosanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-48813030914786825312011-02-10T13:57:25.671-05:002011-02-10T13:57:25.671-05:00My mother is guilty of the 'churning' vers...My mother is guilty of the 'churning' version of dealing with her hoard. It's as if she is not aware that there is a distinction between 'intending' to remove an item from her home and the actual execution of the act. To her, relocation = removal. She's got her math all wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-62934725203223502922011-02-10T12:40:29.115-05:002011-02-10T12:40:29.115-05:00So glad to see you posting again.
I was going to ...So glad to see you posting again.<br /><br />I was going to give you the very useful suggestion to do what I already see you Smart Girls doing in your next post, starting an "identify this" thread.<br /><br />Love your explanation of churning... have experienced way too much of it. If only there was something useful, like butter, or toned thighs, at the end of hours of churning, but no.The Writing Goddesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14577032840574632179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-85825663046351409922011-02-10T12:17:14.473-05:002011-02-10T12:17:14.473-05:00Don't be too hard on yourself. I am with you ...Don't be too hard on yourself. I am with you on the "I'll need it the day after I throw it away" mindset. As far as tools go, I vote "keep for now", if you're taking votes. You are making good progress by tossing obviously broken tools. And since you don't know what you'll need later, you can't, with any real certainty, pare down the tools that are left. You can do another sort later, after you have figured out what you'll need ("later" meaning possibly a couple of years from now, after you have your own shop set up).<br /><br />I'd like to save more things, but lately I've been getting rid of things, and it feels good!Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-55487143734487934552011-02-10T09:06:50.113-05:002011-02-10T09:06:50.113-05:00More power to you! Without touching every single t...More power to you! Without touching every single thing in every single drawer, you will continue to have his cruft infesting your space. One day at a time, one carload of scrap at a time, but you're making it happen!<br /><br />You'll have another sort, of course, when you have a giant pile of good tools and realize you have seven of everything. But that might be "yard sale" instead of "scrapyard".miettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09965481095797956598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4101965020061723845.post-1699748627616139132011-02-10T08:36:01.956-05:002011-02-10T08:36:01.956-05:00Absolutely. You MUST be ruthless. Junk begone!Absolutely. You MUST be ruthless. Junk begone!Debra She Who Seekshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01845703092794695023noreply@blogger.com