Today will discuss what we have to do, and decisions that need to be made.

The wood is cherry. I have asked experts, and contacted the factory, and they all say that it’s up to me. I have decided to stain the wood, put pieces together, and shellac after the job it done. I am using an oil based cherry stain.

This was after unpacking. All pieces are bubble wrapped individually, including the glass in the doors. They are all numbered in order of assembly. Very handy as I know zip about wood working jargon.

Instructions in order

This is the first step in the build. When I hear back from Emperor about the stain, this is where I’ll begin. I have misplaced my sanding block. Guess I’ll have to make do or tear the house apart looking for it. I have a vibrating sander, but I am not sure if I should use that or not.

I bought some cherry stain after deciding that the bare wood did not show the true nature of cherry wood. I still need to get to the shed and get a long, adjustable clamp that I”ll need for some of the assembly.

I dug out some pencils, a sharpener, and some clean cotton cloths to wipe off the wood. It seems pretty smooth, so I won’t be doing any pre sanding. I may have sand lightly after applying the shellac, but that remains to be seen.

Some test plots will definitely be in order, and here they are

These are part of the base, and will face inward upon completion.

I am now concerned that I will need more surfaces on which to prep and stain the pieces. It seems my original plans have fallen short. Maybe that’s a good thing to take small steps. Once a piece is glued, it is glued, baby.

Happy New Year to all!

I heard no fireworks last night at all, and that’s a good thing. Instead  of choking down Vanilla flavored Jim Beam, I opened a bottle of Korbel, and had a few large Mimosas.

The wife went to bed around 12:30, and I crashed on the recliner until 2:30 am. When I got to bed, I noticed my foot itched like a sombitch. I mean, I had scratched it so much, that it was bleeding just above my ankle. I got out of bed and soaked a cotton ball in Campho Phenique (which usually works), and I was still up at 4 am before getting to sleep.

At 7:30, my brother texted me Happy New Year, and had questions about my Oklahoma Beans recipe. I had sent him my recipe blog link yesterday, but I guess he had questions. I could not sleep after that, so got up and began preparations for my black eyed pea recipe; which follows exactly the same as Oklahoma Beans. It’s 10 am now, and will take probably 3 hours for the crock pot to begin boiling. That’s fine. I’ll have time to get a nap.

I am really hoping to get a good start on staining the clock parts for the base today, and begin assembly tomorrow.

Sunny this morning and 55. The weather app says 80 degrees for tomorrow.

Now I have some free time to maybe catch up on some shut eye…

Last day of the year today.

The wife went to the pharmacy to pick up some more meds.

I began staining a couple of the inside panels of the grandfather clock. Just a couple of test sides that will be facing inward upon completion.

I wasn’t going to, but decided to go ahead and stir the stain. Good thing, as it had an inch of sludge at the bottom. It must been sitting on the shelf at the store for a year, undisturbed.

At any rate, I am almost ready to begin staining the first four pieces, that will become the base. Be looking for posts very soon; hopefully, I can start tomorrow, and begin assembly.

70 degrees today, and sunny. It was 30 overnight, according to the weather app. We’re back up to 85 on Friday…

I have been making a new grocery list for a no carb lifestyle, starting on the 2nd. I found some recipes for crock pot hot wings, and fajitas that look good. I already have the wings and fajitas in the freezer, and that oughta last me a while.

I am out of coffee. I ordered some more from Sam’s that should be in later this afternoon. I have no problem drinking coffee late in the day.

No plans for this evening (no surprise), and hope the prick neighbors don’t make too much unnecessary noise. They are everywhere.

We were watching The 4400, but it kinda went off the rails, so we dumped it. We have gotten into Jeopardy!, and are current with latest broadcast. I looked at Trivial Pursuit, but with only 2 of us, it would get old fast….So, we started watching Band of Brothers. I bought the DVD set a few years ago. I think it was very well done.

A little bit of stew left, and we’ll have that for dinner…or at least, I will. There is a tiny bit of turkey left, and that could become a sammich.

Tomorrow will do ham and black eye peas. The leftover ham should last a while.

Have a safe New Year’s Eve!!!

The cold front blew in briskly, dropping temps into the forties for today, possibly into high thirties tonight. It’s still very windy, and the weather apps says it’s 25° with the wind chill. Guess I’ll cancel going swimming over at Lil SIL’s.

I am still in atrial flutter, so I am cancelling my bike ride to the top of the hill.

I will need to get outside and bring in the trash barrels. I was reminded late last night that the trash people once again, are taking New Year’s day off, and will be moving their schedule up a day.

At 2:00, they still have not shown up…I think they cram the regular Monday pickup with Tuesday on holiday week. I wonder it they think it’s really worth it to work one’s butt off one day to get another off..dunno.

I am making beef stew for tonight; a small batch using one nice sized sirloin steak, half a dozen carrots, some celery, half an onion, and a monster tater.

I am considering giving up coffee, thinking of all associated costs; whipping cream is around $5 a quart, and I frequently go through one a week. Coffee itself runs $18 at Sam’s for the large size. Maxwell house is the cheapest there in bulk…and of course; filters.

What am I saying? Give up coffee? maybe later…One thing is for sure; more salad after the new year. I just tossed out the bulk of the green bean casserole, and most of the Christmas cookies…with frosting. That is a first. A few days ago, I threw the ginger snaps, and it looks like I’ll be throwing the apple and pumpkin pies as well.

If only…From woodsterman

The wife was off today for #2 of her infusions (this past Friday) This post was started and never published, so will piggyback on it and post today.

She’ll be out all afternoon in San Antone. It’s an hour drive to get there, and the infusion itself takes 4 hours. Lil” SIL was trying to bully me into driving to pick her up if Lil’ SIL drove her over…

I am going to make a run to the hardware store and get some cherry stain, so I can start on the clock. The wife picked up a sanding block for me the other day. The wood is very smooth, but after staining and the shellac, I figure I may have to lightly sand it.

I did get to the hardware store for the cherry stain, and am now ready to begin work on the clock build.

I looked around at WordPress, but could not figure out how to start another site, dedicated to the clock build. They change the rules so much, it makes it really difficult to do new things; besides, now they want to charge you for everything…screw that.

We are expecting a cold front to blow through beginning tonight, with strong north winds for up to 24 hours, dropping temps into the thirties for a couple days, before warming back up again.

I am still having my atrial flutter. It comes and goes without rhyme or reason, and my BP I took a few minutes ago, showed a pulse of 99. I am one weird patient.

Trash day has gone back to normal, which means I have through tomorrow to get the barrel out, and I was gonna cut up a bunch of cardboard to have them haul off, but the 30 MPH gusty North winds cause me to find a way to anchor the cardboard. Usually, a nice sized rock will do…no shortage of those ’round here.

The wife announced yesterday, that she wants a dishwasher. My first response (in my head, as I bit my tongues) was “Why? you don’t do the dishes anyway?” I have learned that silence can really be golden. I said nothing, but scoped out some prices for new dishwashers, finding HD the most expensive, and Sam’s the cheapest. Sam’s were from $500-$750, while HD ran around $1400. What? $1400 for a dishwasher? Besides; historically, in the past, someone would run the dishwasher, then not empty it, and the girls would either

a. just remove what dishes they needed from the dishwasher

b. put dirty dishes back in with the clean dishes.

God help us all if I suggested to either of them to empty the fricking dishwasher

HENCE

I bought a $15 bamboo dish drainer that works fine if everyone washes their dishes, and places them in the drainer.

It seems I recall a similar post not long ago, and a reader recommended KitchenAid…I quite agree…they make good stuff.

I was trying to insert a video from you tube, but the YT site slows down my computer so much, that I have given up on that idea for now.

I have had much trouble sleeping all night recently, and have attributed that to the fact that I have increased my bourbon intake, as well as unhealthy carbs and sugars. That will stop after the 1st, as I once again hit my zero carb diet, and no alcohol. Also, back to the gummies for sleep.

I hope all you are having a nice Christmas.

I got everything prepped yesterday to get up, make stuffing, and toss  it into the oven. It’s now been in for about 30 minutes, and about 4 hours to go.

I was up early again at 5:30, again at 7:00, then at 10. I was gonna get up then but the wife said I needed to sleep, so I clung to my pillow until just after 11, at which time I got up, dressed, and proceeded to the kitchen. I had pre chopped the celery and onion, so did not have to agonize through that again. Corn bread was already made, and I added a couple extra pieces of WW toast.

This Butterball bird is different than the others I have cooked in recent years. I could not get the wings to fold under the bird…different species? perhaps?

It’s now 12:30, and am finished with all I can do for now.

After checking my BP, I see that my atrial flutter is still with me, although I don’t have to check my BP to know that. I can feel it. Strangely enough, I got an automated text from my cardiologist this morning..weird stuff, man.

I am supposed to remind him to issue orders for me to get a scan in January, so they can check on my aorta size. If it’s still growing, I’ll be a candidate for open heart surgery. It’s always on my mind.

Tomorrow the wife goes for her second round of infusion, ending that for 6 months. Unfortunately, I think the docs waited too long to schedule it, as she is 2 months over due, and stays exhausted/fatigued pretty much all the time.

The a/c is running as the temp is 75° with 79% humidity.

I had some late night tamales, and they were so good, I had three more…absolutely delicious…and that from the grocery store…my blood sugar today was 178…2nd highest ever. Guess I’ll have to stop eating those…at least for a while.

Today is the day we all used to wander around in awe, thinking about possibilities…I can still recall my big gift from Santa in 1st grade, was a robot commando…very cool for a 6 year old in 1961

the arms swung around 360°, and flung little plastic balls. the head opened up and shot a missile. A wired remote control with firing of the ‘weapons’, forward, reverse, left and right.

In 4th grade, it was the Sonic Blaster, that shot a puff of air

I woke up today at 5:30, out of breath…after getting to the bano, a couple times, I found that I had a hard time catching my breath, after returning to bed…I finally got up and out of bed around 8:30 to check my BP…my atrial flutter is back…great timing, with all the stuff I have to do today?

The wife went to town to pick up a couple things from the grocery store, and she had wanted some kind of a wrought iron bench…I guess for the patio.

I would imagine the grocery store, even in this tiny town, will be extremely busy today.

She left strict orders for me NOT to do anything until she returns from said store… No problemo.

I think I WILL brine the turkey for a few hours today, then rinse and let it drain overnight in the fridge.

Oh, on a positive note, I looked up the pretzel order for the kid, and it is out for delivery…that means those poor bastids shipped that overnight…sometimes, it’s good to shake the tree, and see what monkeys fall out.

We are expecting a forecast high of 74° today, and cloudy. The humidity is a paltry 84%.

Here’s wishing all of you readers a Merry Christmas!