The whole day was a terrible blur. I was coughing a lot, and each time I coughed… it felt like a bolt of lightning going down my right leg, due to my back issues.
I had run out of the steroids I was taking, and the entire day was just hours and hours of discomfort. Every cough made things worse, and there was an awful, awful lot of coughing.
Our class today focused on working with our legs, and getting mortises set up. I’ve had some slight exposure to drill presses, but using them for mortises was a new experience (but so much better than doing them by hand).
I came down this morning to a bit of a shock. I had heard some rustling and gate-banging earlier, and walked downstairs to see… Hugo. Outside his pen area, bold as brass.
He actually looked a little confused. And that would make both of us.
There was this special moment, where Cloudy flopped right next to Hugo. It’s always a little dicey when they get this close, because anything could happen – and things could get violent/aggressive very quickly. But it worked out well.
He also mentioned using contrast, which I assumed helped him to see where the injection would go when dispersed. He did this two times, I think.
When this happened, it felt like a lot of pressure running down my right leg. Imagine the feeling of heavy water filling your veins, and then getting stronger and bigger inside your leg. That’s kind of the sensation.
Of note: Chad the Bird (aka Josh Zagoren) had me in absolute stitches.
I cannot tell you how much I was laughing, and just reeling from his delivery. Nonstop, and just before I can recover from a joke the next one hits and I’m off balance again. Highlight of the night for me.
Just so it’s clear: Liz and I purchased a Farm jack, for the post removals. We decided that our prior approach wasn’t good enough, and the right tool for the job (to get the whole post out of the ground) was something we needed to purchase.
So today, if things go well, there would be little to no lifting at all. And our goal would be to let the jack do most of the work. And for me, to let Liz do most of the work, due to my back.
After the doc arrived, we talked about things and she ended up prescribing me some steroids for the inflammation (some kind of pack).
As I got up to leave, I struggled a bit to stand up from the chair. On seeing how much I was struggling, she said that she was going to increase the dosage.
During one of the slower moments, near the end – I took some photos. We haven’t been in the classroom itself much, as the last classes have had us out on the main floor with our various pieces.
Here though, we ended class by gluing up our tops and lower shelves.
“Bare breasted, you make love in the turret
I feel each single thrust that you take
And in silence I watch on from the bastion
Entranced, I make myself look away”
On arriving, I had a form to fill out with some… interesting questions. Bullets? I guess I should consider myself lucky that I don’t have that as something that’s a serious concern.
Just in time, I guess – because after this weekend, I really did a number on my back. This was work we needed to do, but I don’t think we anticipated how much actual lifting we’d end up doing ourselves.
Our approach involved getting a bottle jack under a few 2x4s, screwed into the side of the post. We balanced things on a 2×6 board, that was sitting on a series of 2×4 blocks.
Rather than repair things, we assessed and decided we were going to tear the whole thing down and start over. And we had the (good? bad?) idea to do the removal and new fence by ourselves. And lucky you, you get to watch.
First class tonight, for another session at the Chicago School of Woodworking. We arrived a bit late, and hurriedly got all our materials into the classroom while the rest of the students were out on the floor.
Paused to take this photo, which had a lot of nice light coming in the windows.