Where in the world am I today?: Vacationing in Peru
I posted last week about the fun I’ve been having building props for “The Hot Dog Show” that I’ll be debuting at the PNE on August 22. One of the props I’m building for the show, the Hot Dog equivalent to the Human Cannonball, is being built from a modified compressed-air potato cannon that I received as a gift from John Ullyatt a few years ago and a wooden box to house the bits that make up the cannon.
Now I’ve got a workshop at home with some tools in it, but it’s nothing compared to the wood-working shop that my neighbour has and I just knew that if I could convince him to give me a hand with the cutting of the bits required for the wooden cannon case, that the end results would be far better than were I to attempt it with the tools that I have handy at home.
As it turns out our neighbour is an engineer, and when I told him about what I wanted to do, and demonstrated the cannon in action he almost jumped at the opportunity to give me a hand with it.
Is a term I learned when doing some of the home renovations that we did when we first moved into our house. The idea is to be stupidly diligent about making sure you don’t make a mistake along the way, and this is very much the philosophy that our neighbour took in the cutting of the required pieces for the cannon housing. Little details like having the hand holes fit to four fingers were all part of the process and not only do I feel a greater ownership from having done the work on this myself (with help of course), but also a greater connection to my neighbour who willingly offered up his wood-working shop to accommodate the project.
I’m thrilled with the result and with the time I got to share with my neighbour and all of this because I took the time to ask if he’d give me a hand.
