Ran with the devil, Walked with angels: Comedy of errors

A comedy of errors isn’t funny when it’s on you. In my dreams I was going to finish the oven cabinet today. Didn’t happen. I had problems at first with forty five degree angles. This is one of the hard to explain results of the brain injury. There is so much that needs to be rewired. For example I have problems judging volumes. I can look at a container and tell you it’s about six inches across and four inches deep, no problem with that. But if there is a pot of food I have a hard time figuring out which container it will fit in. It’s just that that part of the equation my brain couldn’t do, it was a damaged part. Now I’ve gotten better at it because I relearned this.

Now this is the first time I’ve had to work with forty five degree angles since the accident and it was hard for my mind to grasp. I cut them in the wrong direction and stuff till I learned how to do it. Kinda like being in jr high shop class for the first time. Now here’s the kicker. When I was homeless and going to the public library, researching who I was, one of the first things that I found was an article in the newspaper with a big picture of me. I was carving out mahogany legs for a desk that the article said was valued at ten thousand dollars. This was when I was opening my third company, Absolute Office Furniture. I have a copy of the article that I made in the library. It’s not the best quality cause it’s from the library copy machine. When I get some spare cash I’ll pay the fee to have the paper send me a better copy. So here I am having problems with forty five degree angles when I used to make ten thousand dollar desks. That might give you a hint of my frustration level and how much I lost.

So it ends up that the wood I bought didn’t match as far as size goes. Between that and the fact that I trashed several pieces I had to run to Lowe’s and buy some more wood. Went through all twenty one pieces of the size of oak I needed they had and there was not one good piece there. It all had paint or black crap on it. I picked the best two and, at the advice of a clerk, asked for the manager to see about a price reduction. The cashier called him on the phone and was told that because the store gets full credit he wouldn’t discount it. I already wasn’t in a good mood so this set me off. “Fine, Keep it” I said along with a suggestion where she could put it. I hate it when the temper flares up. Going out to the truck I sat and stewed, then went back in. This time I asked for a face to face with the manager. “I’ve got a thousand dollars worth of kitchen cabinets from here and just need two pieces of wood to finish the job. You don’t have a decent piece and you want me to wait till you restock?” I said angrily. He cut the price in half. So I saved eight bucks. Not a big deal as far as the amount of money but the principle was the matter. I got the wood.

Coming home I went back to making the pieces I need to finish up. Why it was a challenge I don’t know. Actually I do know but don’t like it. I fitted the pieces carefully and tried to be meticulous in numbering where each one went. Then I went back out to the shop to make the round edges I needed by sanding them on this grinder with a sanding disk on it.

Then I lined them up with the correct numbered joints to hand sand them to match when installed. But I found that I had misnumbered them. More frustration. Finally getting that sorted out I went to install them. Another problem I have is driving nails. That’s from the right side being partly paralyzed. There was lots of cussing and I bent five nails before I got one hammered in a particular hole. Come to find out the nails are made in China and weren’t real good. If I had the money I’d open a store named “Not Made In China”. Just don’t like Chinese products at all.

I finally got this done at 9:45. Tomorrow I go to the VA hospital and after that hope to put the finish on the cabinet. It’ll be nice to be done. Night all.