Back to the Rock

It looks like July will  be eventful. I have three Lost Era shows at the Whittier Museum, and one pending in Fullerton. Later this month, Mary and I are planning an open house here around solstice. Maybe it'll turn into a big party. That has happened before, and it's fun when it does. But it's work, and lots of it, to throw a real party. 

As always, I'm in two minds about the whole thang. Of course, it is great fun to have a gathering. Mary and I are good at it, and we've earned a fair reputation for being good hosts. On the other hand, we are both feeling the years more and more. Get-to-do becomes have-to-do rather quickly. Our energy reserves are shallower than once they were. Everything seems like a bigger deal than it used to be. Welcome to post-middle-age.

We'll pull it off. Always have.

So, let's take a look at the rock. We left off here:

Unlike the last stone, this wasn't too heavy to lift, so the next step was  what I call take-down. I got out the angle grinder, and made a dusty mess out of the back yard.

The stone had a pretty clean bottom cut to begin with, but when I stood it up, it seemed a little bit off, leaning ever so slightly to one side.

I stuck a wedge under the base, and nudged it in until it looked right. It was off vertical by just around a half inch. (note precise measurement) It has to look "right" but this isn't machine shop. As long as the eye is pleased it passes QC. So here we are with a new bottom:

I started sketching out a plan, and even committed to it far enough that I scribed it into the rock face.

But I changed my mind. We were going to begin with a loop-the-loop at the base, and continue with an "S" curve, but...

No. I don't want to do another loop-the-loop right now. The "S" curve will stay. We'll see where it goes from here.