Finding the Groove

I was down at my Mother's the first part of this week, working on financial matters following the passing of my Father in early April. With death certificates in hand, we set off to pay visits to the investment manager, the bank, the tax guy and a good portion of the World Wide Web (that wondrous array of "tubes" that we can all thank Al Gore for) in order to exercise fiduciary responsibility and protect entitlements and benefits.

It all went surprisingly well. I was expecting a lot more Bad Things to happen, but it helps to have a business background, some life experience, a steady hand and a steely gaze whenever one leaves sight of land on The Sea of Bureaucracy.

In fact,  thanks to Volkswagon turbo technology, I was able to make it back to the Twin Towns in time for my newly-resumed art welding class on Wednesday afternoon. I sparked up the torch, made a few simple welds, learned a valuable lesson about the effects of hot metal on fingers, and generally eased back in to the groove just a little bit yesterday.

That was followed today by a class field trip to Amble's, which is truly a jewel of the Twin Cities. This place has been there since before time, it seems, and it's packed to the rafters with all kinds of weird and interesting stuff. The photo with this post is from the gear-and-chain-and-other-stuff aisle that I lingered in this afternoon. I walked out with $15 of scrap that is the starting material for my weathervane. Details to follow, depending on how I do with this project...

In other news, I currently have a bike in the basement awaiting a pre-century tune-up and will be heading out tomorrow with stand and tools in to create a bike from parts for another friend tomorrow.  It might be time for Beers for Bloggers very soon...

It seems that things are slowly returning to normal.