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3:14 PM
Not much happened this week, a couple of high pressure meetings at work and then hours of sanding therapy to relieve the stress. As my 8-yr old mind remembers the story, my father made me sand that pinewood derby car for hours and hours until it was smooth as glass. Since it was pine, I'm surprised we really got it as smooth as it was. So, now, I sit in the TV room upstairs with my knife and some sandpaper, rubbing out the rough spots of my day. I'm sure Kathy's not thrilled with the bits of trash, dust and debris around the house from my projects, but she's been extremely patient with me on it. In response to Dad's question, basically, I rough out the form with a band saw that I bought at the Swedish Harbor Freight tools, smooth out the big bumps on a table-mounted belt sander, and then do the rest by hand.
This weekend is the famous market in Jokkmokk, north of here. I don't think we'll make it this year. There are projects to do, at home and at the home of friends. Then church, some UFC fights and the Superbowl.
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7:05 AM
It's another cold week, snow and wind. Kathy's off to go park the car in the public underground garage again to let the ice melt off again. Spent most of the weekend in the house, trying to stay warm. That gave me more time to play with my next project.
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6:27 PM
Some friends and consultants from the U.S. and U.K. were in town for a project this week and we experienced some of the worst weather I've seen since we got here. On Tuesday, the winds kicked up, blowing about 30mph for the next 2 days, the snows came and the temperature has dropped from about 0°C to -20°C. We have snow drifts about 2 to 3 ft high all over town. The size of the storm was not necessarily new, I've seen worse going over Donner Summit. But this was the first since we've been here and definitely the longest lasting I've seen.
Work goes on ... and on ... sometimes you wonder if you're making any progress. I've been labelled troublemaker at work. We have to generate monthly reports, documenting our progress on our various projects. A couple of other people in the group were sent back their reports with the comment, "please revise your report and make it look like Matt's". I don't know the Swedish translation for "kiss-ass" but the sentiment is the same.
Then last weekend, it was our family's turn to shovel snow at the church. Daniel and I spent an hour before church, shoveling the parking lot and breaking the packed snow off of the sidewalk. The same co-worker came to church, saw the clean sidewalk and pulled me aside to let me know that he wouldn't stand for the type of behavior. He wasn't going to be shown-up at work AND church! It was all in good fun.
I've attached a photo of my next project. A consultant friend has offered to trade me some exotic woods for a knife. So, this time, I'm going to try and make two identical handles of the same pattern of the last one I made. The woods are lemon wood and a dark mahogany, which I hope will be a good combination. The blades are a little smaller with a little bit of a drop point.
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9:19 PM
By the way, I received a birthday present from my parents this last week ... I really liked the Harley t-shirt from Reno. There's a guy at the office that is a huge Moto Guzzi (Italian motorcycle company) fan and he get's very wound up when I tell him that Harley's are better. He also happens to be a VP in the company, so it feels sooooooooo good when I can get him fired up, simply by wearing a t-shirt.
Thank you!
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7:03 PM
Ok, this is the last set of photos of the knife, I promise. It's been a very busy week, between regular work load, people coming up for job interviews, and speaking with lots of vendors. Even placed a call for Mr. Daniel Blattman at Michelin in South Carolina to discuss tire, but he was too busy to take my call.
The knife is nearly done, it feels like the more I work on it, the more I screw up the finish, so I decided to just end it. A lot of lessons learned, let's see if the next one is any nicer.
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6:16 PM
It was -23°C this afternoon as I left the office (about -9°F for all you non-metric folks), cold enough that the doors to the car were frozen shut. Who was the first man to decide to live in this weather??? Probably the first guy who thought it was ok to soak fish in lye and then eat it.
I decided to work on the blog again this year. Part of the reason I stopped was that we ran out of exciting things to do ... ok, at least all the NEW sights and sounds within a couple hours' drive of the house. There's still plenty to do and we keep busy, it just doesn't sound as fun to write about.
Work is still busy but it finally looks like some help may be on the way. A couple of friends are on their way up this month to interview for the jobs and hopefully their ready to move up here. If not, I don't know who else to ask! Any mining engineers looking to move to Sweden???
Kids are still on their holiday break, they go back on Monday.
