December's back again

Tsk, here we are at December already; I don't know where this year's gone, I really don't. But hey, November was signed off in style with a flurry-ette of activity in the workshop aimed towards breaking the back of the Christmas Present Problem. Trouble is that demands batch production, so while I did make progress there's still nothing in an actual finished state. Bum. I did at least get a disc sanding arrangement rigged up without too much hassle, which had been giving me some cause to worry. Not usually a disc sanding kind of gal but it was required in this case so I saved some time by using the table from my old combi disc/belt sander that I used once, hated and consigned to oblivion. The disc part that is; the belt sander bit gets used quite a bit for tool-related stuff. That and an MDF disc on the lathe faceplate and behold, a variable speed disc sander. Even had one of the adhesive discs I got with the original sander handy; must be all of 8 years old and waiting for its moment of triumph. Amazed I could find it when I needed it.



Yeah, okay, so I need to work on the dust extraction a little more...

Mind you, it's still very much touch and go as to whether I'll meet the deadline. What with one thing and another, mainly a bad back (again), I reckon I've lost at least one solid month of workshop time in this run-up to Crimbo. One Solid Month. That's not a case of "not much workshop time" but actual "not making anything in the workshop at all". The last couple of weeks haven't seen me darken its doors - and then to my horror when I did get in there I found this on the Maxi:



Okay, so if had been on practically anything else but the Maxi then I'd be really upset, but as it is it's something I could do without. Still not entirely sure whether it was dripping condensation or something worse. We have had some really fearsome driving rain and winds lately...

Anyway, did at least do something. Or maybe that should more accurately be over-did something. I figured if I was to take advantage of any workshop time I'd better go big and do as much as possible, and oh brother, has my back been telling me all about it. I don't know if the readership are familiar with wheat bags you heat up in the microwave and apply as localised warmth to aches and pains e.g. bad backs? Blessed invention. None of the stress of hot water bottles and worrying if you've finally perished the rubber and are going to be scalded by a dose of escaping hot water. I must have re-heated my wheat bag at least a dozen times last night; two minutes at 750w. Funny how two minutes can seem like a long time though, when you're desperate for it to be over. I could hardly even bear to stand still last night, so I was doing laps of the kitchen table while I waited. Averaged 15 seconds a lap, although curiously I was slightly faster going clockwise than counter-clockwise. At the time I found that interesting - which probably tells you all you need to know about my state of mind at 3 in the morning when I'm going "ow".

And finally, I've made the switch from Blogger to BloggerBeta, so if you come across any hitches give a yell. Seems I've got to start coming up with "labels" for posts. I think they mean categories. Ooo, that's going to be hard; I shall have to think about that.