Notes from all over: "I have that life"

I've said it a dozen times. Everybody needs a workshop. Inside or outside the house, it doesn't matter. A place to repair, build, create, think.

["Dust flies, fat notebooks are handy"]

My shop was underway in 2005, maybe a bit earlier. Now it's pretty much what I want as a small hobby shop, though the outside deck could be bigger. That's another 'shop project.' I'll add it to the growing list.

Recently I thought, "I have that life." I have a great place to work at my own speed on something I feel is important.

I can repair household items, build a birdhouse or shadow box or solid chair, and though a clock is on the wall I don't feel like I'm on it. My sense of time passing is changing, and I like thinking about that with feet planted on a wooden floor I built myself.

One day I needed a set of hinges so I walked to a local hardware store in my shop clothes. Once inside I noticed someone looking at my shop shirt and pants. Messy. Out of the ordinary. Covered with paint and glue stains, and dust. My shop hat was no better.

Shaggy dusty Gord. Yup, that's me I thought.

But I like my shop clothes. They fit.

When my green flannel shirt finally wears out - it's good 'til 2016, surely - I'll toss it out and take a trip to the Village of Values with three bucks in my pocket. Three bucks from the shop kitty.

I don't have all the words but I have that life.

Photos by GH

More from The Workshop