The Hobbies They Are A'Changin'

I volunteer for the Relay for Life, a fund-raiser for cancer treatment and research. I did this last year, and in addition to raising a good bit of funding we all had a blast. This year our team is doing a silent auction along with all the same fund-raising efforts we did last year. Our coordinator thought that to keep things interesting, the items should be hand-made or should be services that we, ourselves, would provide. Hey, what a perfect opportunity for someone with a home shop!

Seeing as how I used to make pens and pencils in the shop, I volunteered to do that. A few years back I got out of the pen and pencil business because I'd cranked out far too many as presents. I vowed that if I couldn't at least make it interesting (nice inlay work, mixing different woods, etc.) I simply wouldn't make them any more. I started doing a lot more creative setups, but they ate more time and more materials, and eventually I tapered off so I could spend my time doing other things like making parts for RC cars. I still have all my stuff, though, so I pulled it all out and started rummaging. Insert kits, wood blanks, even all my bushings were all there. I even had some tube sets already made up that never got assembled into pens. Great! Now all I needed to do was make them!

After a number of failed attempts at even getting out in the shop in the evening, I came to a realization: By the end of the day I'm absolutely zonked. Every time I tried to get up the energy to make pens after dinner, I realized I really didn't have it in me, and worried I might hurt myself in the process. Before you laugh, if you've seen the kinds of injuries you can get on a lathe by not having your wits about you, you'd realize this is a very real concern. So far I consider myself lucky, and I've nearly broken a finger when a three-jaw caught my hand. Yes, that's "lucky".

I got in a funk last night, figuring this was a sign of getting old. But my wife reminded me that I wake up at 5:30am on a normal morning (closer to 4:30am for an early-out morning) and she typically keeps me up 'till well after 10:00pm, so it probably has a lot less to do with getting old as it does just getting tired. This cheered me up, but there was still the matter of making pens and pencils when I'm exhausted. I just couldn't figure out how I'd get them done in time.

Then I realized I could charge my rig's batteries, check my gear, and offer my KAP services as a low-altitude aerial photography service. Yahoo!! So I printed up a little flyer I could put on the auction table, and let the coordinator know of the change in plans. I'm still going to crank out all the completed tube sets I've got, but it's going to be only a handful of pens rather than the dozen I was hoping for.

Oh how the hobbies have changed... Used to be I'd get home on a Wednesday night, give my shop buddy a call, and we'd get together out in my shop once the kids were in bed, about 9:00pm or so. We'd crank away 'till 3:00am, then we'd both get up for work the next morning. It was exhausting! It was exciting! My GOD we made a lot of pens and pencils (and rocket parts, and sailboat parts, and, and, and)! We used to eat, drink, breathe, live this stuff. And now? Now I'm trying to figure out how to use the tubes I've already made up, and not have to go make more. Have to? Boy have the times changed.

Maybe my wife is right. Maybe I'm just tired. Maybe I like the kite idea because kite flying is something that's typically done during the day when I'm awake and alert. (Well, that and it's fun as heck to do.) Maybe also it's that I now do machining as part of my daytime job. It's not the forbidden fruit it once was; it's part and parcel of daily life. Maybe I've simply moved on.

Or maybe I'm finally catching up on all the sleep I missed when I spent all those Wednesday nights doing shop-night... In that case I have a long way to go...

- Tom