Friday, October 24, 2014

Deconstruction

It's the end of October, probably the last bit of warm weather we're going to see around here for a very long time, so we're starting to hunker down and plan for the Big Freeze. There's a lot of things that didn't get done this past summer, so it isn't possible to just sit in our cozy, warm house and read books by the firelight (no matter how much I'd like to do that); I'm going to need the shop and the tools and the snow blower and the shovels and all manner of other things in order to fix things around the house when they break down, as they always seem to do when it is least convenient.

But ...

There's Serenity. She's been laid up now for a couple years, waiting for me to get the engine running again, taking up valuable space, and I just don't have the heart to leave her out in the weather again, rusting. I want to get that car fixed. But there's too much going on right now. The priority is the basement, not my car, so she's got to sit around for a few more months waiting for life to slow down a bit, waiting for some attention. And only spot available for her is the third bay. The shop.

Unfortunately, the layout of the shop is not convenient for that purpose. Over the past few years, it's been built up quite a bit to be suitable for a shop, but not suitable for a place to park a car. Cars take up a lot of room. Subarus require 65 inches in width, 185 inches in length, and 60 inches in height. The shop is essentially a large box inside the garage, complete with doors and a ceiling; it's long enough and wide enough to handle the car -- except for all those pesky workbenches and shelves and table saws and welders and hammers and saws and other fix-it paraphernalia which clutters up a shop after a few years and a few trips to the hardware store.

So tonight I'm going to rip it all down to the bone and start over again. Somehow I have to find room for a shop and a car.

Hey! Miracles happen, don't they?

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