Yes, it’s been a while since my last update, and for no
particular reason except that I’ve been busy with lots of priorities and
activities. It is spring/summer, after
all.
So, here’s an update from the last several months, and some
coming attractions.
The Back
When we last left our intrepid blogger, he was about to have
back surgery. I can now report that
after two surgeries (there was a small complication that was easily fixed but
required another trip into my anatomy) my back is doing very well. I should have done it years ago. The nerve pain is gone, gone, gone – and while I’m not
lifting 100-lb sacks of feed yet, the animals I’m feeding don’t require that
much to eat. I’m already swinging golf
clubs (carefully, in the back yard), back to my exercise regimen, and for the
most part living very normally and pain-free.
Big thanks to my superb surgeon, Dr. Ira Fedder, and all of the great folks at
St. Joseph Medical Center for superb care and their kind tolerance of my
slightly-crotchety behavior when confined to a hospital bed.
The Job
The wonderful pharmaceutical company that I worked for
decided to divest their plant in Puerto Rico.
We made a good run at making the plant profitable; circumstances and the
poor economy dictated otherwise and we decided to stop throwing good money
after bad, as it were. Unfortunately,
with that divestiture I was out of a job.
As of this writing I am still looking for work. I’m enjoying the time off (keep reading) and
being very picky about my next adventure.
I’d like something with less travel (I was traveling 90-95% for the past
6 years or so) and a chance to make a difference with a growing company. If you know of someone who needs a superb
project/program/operations executive in the pharma/biotech business or any
other business (my skills travel well), you can find my resume here. In the meantime, it’s really nice eating
dinner at home most nights!
The Adventures
I’m certainly not sitting idle. Outside of the time put in looking for work
and strengthening my network in Baltimore and beyond, I’ve been keeping
extremely busy. The list of repairs,
upgrades, and general work around the house grew long in my traveling days and
for the first time in a long while, the list is getting shorter, not longer. I’m volunteering through a wonderful
organization called the Center for Sustainable Social Impact, which offers
consulting and other assistance to small nonprofit organizations. Currently I’m writing a business plan for a
small NPO in Baltimore and enjoying that immensely. And I’m exploring lots of creative outlets
that have been neglected with my time on airplanes and faraway places.
First: Dust off the guitars.
I played some guitar and bass guitar many years ago and decided to pick
them up again. I was never very good – now I’m patently horrible. But armed with my
old Fender bass, my even older Yamaha acoustic guitar, and a shiny new Paul Reed Smith electric guitar, I’m playing some nearly every day and looking forward to
when once again I can play something that doesn’t make my wife (who is a real
musician) cringe. Stay tuned (pun
intended).
Next: Cook, a lot. I
love cooking, mostly because I love eating.
And my lovely bride loves when I can spend some time making good (and
sometimes healthy) meals. So I’m trying
to increase my kitchen repertoire and mostly producing tasty results. We’re trying very hard to eliminate processed
foods from our diet. When you have time
to cook, that becomes much easier and your meals are a whole lot better. Although my love of a good grilled cheese
sandwich still keeps me on the elliptical trainer. Which brings me next to…
Baking. I love
bread. I have always wanted to bake my own
bread. Now I do. Armed with a superb book and a little time, I’ve
been busy stocking our freezer (and our friends, and my waistline!) with wonderful
bread and entertaining my Instagram followers with photos of my delicious
creations. And then…
Woodcraft. Following
the rule of delightful unintended consequences, one of the photos I posted (above, far right) included the
oven squirrel that lives on the back of our stove. An oven squirrel is a neat little wooden
device that I use to push and pull the oven rack, saving my fingers from burns. My father-in-law made it for us years ago and
a friend of mine, the lovely and supremely talented artist Danamarie Hosler,
noticed it in the photo and asked about it.
Danamarie loves squirrels and, being an intrepid crafty sort myself, I
told her I’d make her one. Then I told my niece I’d make her one. Then I told another
friend I’d make her one.
What do you do when you’ve made three wooden squirrels? You make more, and branch out into other
things. With a (horrible old) scroll
saw, a Dremel tool, and a lot of hand sanding, I started making several
different oven pulls. I’ve now designed
and made a rabbit, fish, turtle, and a nondescript practical-sexy one and with
great encouragement and advice from Danamarie, I’ve opened my own Etsy shop named White Hall Woodcraft. I don’t imagine they
will be big sellers; I make these for fun and relaxation and the joy of
creating something attractive and useful.
If you want to peek closer at my creations (or even buy one), you can find my
Etsy shop here. If I sell enough, I’ll
buy a better scroll saw. As you know, one of the Man Rules is that every project
deserves the purchase of a new tool.
I’ll try to blog more often, in between working, cooking,
baking and making wooden squirrels. After all, the Mobbies are going to come
around again and I want to do better this year than the top 50% of nominees. In the meantime, I'm back to my busy
life, and looking for the next adventure.
Cheers!
