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other thoughts

Vice

[Wednesday: run to State Farm – 3 miles; Saturday: downtown loop – 4.6 miles]

My running is doing better now that I have the different shoes. I’ve sent back the Topos for a smaller size which I hope will work for me. I’ll keep the Brooks in rotation also.

About a week ago I picked up a very inexpensive bench-side carpentry vise. I spent last weekend and a few evenings this past week rebuilding the top of the workbench (which I inherited from my brother Jon). I used some “pew” wood from some old church furnishings, nice solid oak, to beef up the front of the bench. And I replaced the rough plywood top with some pine boards. Real carpenters use thick planks or a glue-up of lots of smaller strips. But I’m just using some 1x8s and I screwed them down. There is a thinner oak board at the front edge of the top to fill in the gap (which was also from the church furniture). I have one place there to the left of the vise where I could put in another fill piece eventually.

The new vise works great. It is a 10″ Craftsman which already came with some pieces of oak in the jaws.

I also worked on my mechanic’s vise. I have had it for quite a while, purchased it at an auction when we lived in Mississippi. It was not always behaving, particularly when I would try to “unwind” it open. Frequently I would have to pull it open. But I figured out what the problem was and I believe it is now fixed: needed a new bolt to afix the thread follower.

With the new tool box for a birthday present, the new bench top, new side vise and the repaired mechanic’s vise I feel like I really have my tools in good shape.

I spent some time yesterday sweeping up and putting things away. Eventually I made enough room on the west to put our regular car in the garage! So we now have a two car garage with two cars in it (the small one that doesn’t run and the larger one we use frequently)!