Shop Truths, Phrases, Tales; and Outright Lies

[Frank S]

I have formulated the theory that the only difference between retirement and indentured servitude depends on whether or not you are married. secondly whether or not you have a land or a property to keep up.
I have a friend who, like me is retired my wife calls it retarded I'm not going to enter into a debate over that one.
My friend is single has been so all of his life and believe it or not never learned to cook but that too is another topic. He rents a small mouse in a medium sized town not large enough to be classed as a small city He drove over the road for 40 years until he felt that it was time to pass the gear shift on to a younger generation. He doesn't hunt, doesn't even own a gun not that he is against it he just never had a place to keep one while out on the road. He doesn't fish says he can't swim and won't get in water over ankle deep, maybe a story there about aqua-phobia but I think he is more talk than anything else. the only thing he has to do around his house is to watch the grass grow or try to coach a pecan tree out of the ground. He is not a carpenter by any stretch of anyone's imagination. I taught him how to weld a little about 20 years ago. but there is a huge difference in being able to weld and being able to fabricate something from nothing more than an idea so if he happens to think of something he would like I usually have to build it for him. even though he had his own welding machines plural. After being retired for a few years ha has found himself at a loss watching grass grow or waiting for a pecan to sprout had in his words driven him bonkers. SO he has gone back to driving this time not as an over the road long haul trucker but a passenger van delivering Railroad crews. Not all that much money but at first he said the time on the road was a therapy for him. Now after a few months the lure of the highway is waning which means he is getting tired of it but his prospects of doing nothing again does not sit well for him.
I have told him that what he should do is to is to figure out what it is he would like to do more than anything else then pursue that thought. I know he likes to do light mechanic work and is not all that bad of a mechanic if he really wants to He has a 5000 lb tool chest chock full of most any hand tool or impact wrench he could ever need But busting wrenches again is not something he says he wants to start doing. OK I said you said that you used to work part time in a wood turning shop you like running a wood lathe do that.
Well I don't have a shop to work out of and it would take a long time to build one.
Any suggestion that I came up with,He would have a counter as to the reason, my thinking of it as an excuse why not tot so this or do that.
So he asked me why my retirement seemed that I was always too busy to get everything done.
that's easy I said I'm married which by virtue of a single document makes me an indentured servant even if I wasn't married I would still be a slave to something.the animals that need watered and fed every day the place always has something that needs mending or cleaned up or mowed fences to repair because of neighbors live stock or the old house can always use more attention than I have the time tend to it. or there is my shop that I am wanting to get built so I don't have to do my work under a tent or out of a trailer,
I told him I retired from the established work force only to become so busy that today I cannot for the life of me figure out how I ever had time for a job
Just when I get started in one project and really want tot concentrate on its completion something will interrupt me Like you've been standing on that ladder long enough it is time to take a break. Or the lawnmower wont start come start it for me, or we might need bread in a couple of days so we need ot go to town.
For the past week I have been rebuilding an add on room on the back of the house that I tore down to the studs 3 years ago to get rid of mold that had been there when we got the place It has taken this long to get back to working on it I now have it dried in with the siding back on and the roof in felt the door has been relocated and 2 3 ft by 6 ft windows installed on their sides giving me a 12 ft long window should have been at worst a 2 or possibly 3 day job to do a 12 by 16 room but I still have the trim the soffit and fascia to put on then insulate the inside and either drywall it or sheet it with something else plus the lighting.
The only thing is now that it is dried in it may be another 2 years before I finish it