Coming a Round

 

8/22

It's Monday morning and I'm bleary eyed and beat. I was up late last night. It was around 1:00am when I was about to turn in. Then I realized Buddy the Cat was missing. I called. Searched the house. Searched the yard. No cat. He almost never leaves the yard, and he's quick to come if I call. How did he get out? Where could he be? I'm having visions of my cat being taken by a coyote. I walked around the front. Took the bike out at 3:00am, riding around to the other side of the block. No Cat. I was so exhausted the I flopped on the couch a little after 4:00, Couldn't even doze. So I got up just in time to see that darned animal plod across the back patio, and saunter on up to the sliding door.

 *meow*

Huge rush of emotion.

 

So it was 4:30 bed time. And I didn't sleep 

well.

Back to the boulder:

 

I went ahead with shaping the big, roughly octagonal block into a cylinder. I'm shaping the whole thing, even though I'm only going to use a slice of it for the ring. The ring is going sit about 3/4 of the way from the tail to the nose of the teardrop, and it should be about 2 1/2 inches wide. But all the layout work is drawn on the front face of the cylinder I created. That front face will soon be cut away, and then I'll be working freehand to get the figure shaped. It will be a challenge.

 

Wed, 8/17

The layout work is three dimensional drafting on oddly shaped uneven surfaces.  I have to define the figure by drawing lines before cutting stuff away. Just like masons of old I'm drafting it out with a level, square and compass. The lines have to be straight, the circles round, and the angles square. This isn't so hard to do on paper. It's a little trickier to do on a cube. It gets trickier yet as more material gets cut away from the block. Next up is to get the cylinder as close to round as I can. I'll just tease the edges closer and closer to the pencil line, then, re-draft the guide lines for the next cuts.   Too, the sides, and top are unreliable.  The front face on which the layout is drawn is nice and flat, but it leans out 1/4" from plumb. All the saw cuts have to eyeballed for straightness. There's no improvising, or getting all artsy creative with this kind of project. Everything has to be measured and squared against the center line under the base of the stone. I spent all day checking lines, angles, and measurements. Despite my best efforts, everything ends up almost perfect.  Now it's on to the serious cuts.

 

Fri-8/19

So here we are all rounded out with the first cuts taken from the cylinder. This will probably be  it for the week. I have a bike ride with the gang tomorrow. 

 

 

Sunday, Mary is going to go out to Palm Desert for a week at a time share resort. I'll be here with the cats. Funny. Getting the house to myself, a chance to play bachelor for a few days, used to be kind of fun. There's the old, old instinct to call all your buddies over for beer and weed, and pizza. Play the stereo loud, put a monster movie on video, and stay up late.

No.

 I'm looking forward to take-out food, not doing dishes, doing a deep cleaning on the house. Maybe even mess with the yard. Get in touch with my inner custodian, or something. Joys of old age.