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I remember watching this as a kid. I must have purged 97% of it. I didn't remember how god awful it was.

I meant to post this last week when I actually built it, but forgot to. I also forgot to take finished pictures with the newel caps in place, but use your imagination. A couple of weeks ago one of the bosses told me that he forgot to call the stair guy to build railings at the new addition of a smallish job. By the time he remembered, the stair guys schedule was too far out to meet our deadline. The railings needed to mimick the existing railings of the San Francisco Victorian home. He asked me if it was something I thought that I could do. Stairs and railings are usually a specialty, and as such are usually subbed out. A sub genre of finish carpentry, if you will. I haven't actually built indoor railings before, but I knew it was something that I could accomplish. There were no solid newel posts available in the size that I needed, so I built my own. As these will be painted, I used Poplar. It's a good, stable wood that doesn't have the most beautiful color or grain pattern, but is easy to mill and takes paint very well. The exception are the pickets, which are Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Kind of felt right using a wood from my home state. It's not soft like the usual Cedars, and has a very unique smell when cut. I got to use a lot of tradesman tricks and practices, and a lot of the math that I told my teachers I'd never need. Yes, they we're right. I did a lot of good preparation, so it wasn't just dumb luck, but it did fall together beautifully. The absence of a lower rail that the pickets sit on is a bit unique, but the existing rails pickets also connect directly to the stair treads. It actually works quite well at tying the newer, somewhat modern addition to the classic Victorian style. The caps not pictured are a pretty simple double cap design, with the bottom cap being 5/4 material, with a smaller top cap of 3/4.

This week I've been building a lot of specialty stuff at a book store/coffee shop that we're doing for a repeat client. She literally told my bosses that I'm the only one allowed to do any of the finish carpentry, and that they need to make sure to make me available to her and the project. I did a lot of fun, unique stuff at her beachfront home build about 4 years ago, and we have developed a special working relationship. She was directly involved in helping me get a $10 an hour raise about 4 months after starting with this company. Needless to say I am very thankful and loyal toward her. This project includes some custom wood countertops that I'm building, lot's of outdoor projects out of reclaimed wood (there's a huge backyard where kids can read in a very cool cabana, and has huge planters/benches and a very cool recycle bin out of recycled Cyprus. But one of the projects that I'm really going to have fun with is and indoor tree house that I am designing as well as building. It will be another cozy nook for kids to climb in and read or just hang out. Pics to follow at some point soon.

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything May only be relevant to me and those older than I am. Graduated from high school in 1971 so the people and events are very real for me.

Looks great, Steve. Building the tree house sounds fun, something I would never attempt with my kids. They would ask every 5 minutes when it would be done, then fight over the best spot when it was finished. Maybe one day I’ll hold each of them their own chair. Little more work done on the miter station. Figured I should get the counter top done so I can work off it. Woodpecker rail slots cut and test fit in place. Will shoot a couple coats of marine varnish on it tomorrow then mount it in place. Then drawer boxes. Hate drawer boxes.

Makoto Ozone The Trio - Pandora https://open.qobuz.com/album/zhjn8i16sr4ma

Sorry, I've been meaning to getting around to answering this question for a long time. Scott's Bass Lessons is the only one I know of, but I'm sure there are others. I can't speak to its quality because I never took bass lessons myself. Maybe ask around on TalkBass? I responded well to individual tutoring, because 1, it gave me weekly goals so motivated to practice, and 2, they could observe my form (and tell me if I was doing anything badly, or more specifically, would guide me not to do anything that would cause repetitive motion injuries, which is common among guitarists). I don't see any reason why one couldn't do that over Zoom or Discord or whatever, so that's what I'll be doing when I resume. There's also books. I like this one (but admittedly not everyone does).

I only watch for the soundtrack and dance sequences.

All of my cupping bowls are heating in the sink. Gesha cupping coming up.

Speaking of big guys, anyone watching Peacemaker? It’s my smart-dumb, semi-guilty, middle of the night watch.

New supervisor.

Certainly not the best screenwriting in Reacher, but the big giant actor gets more comfortable in the role and we enjoyed the ride, snapped bones and all.

We've only seen the first episode of Reacher and the actor hasn't quite yet locked onto the target. (First episodes are such a tricky business.) But already it's light years ahead of the blasphemy with ["the sawed-off runt"] Tom Cruise. The books are so much fun. I have hopes.

^^^ Art is not required to make sense.

posted for the owner who will comment much further. (for some reason he cannot publish high res pictures)

I started watching Reacher over the weekend after reading a couple of favorable (but not great) reviews online. Two episodes in and I’d rate it exactly the kind of mindless entertainment that I look for a lot of the time. It’s a far better take on the character than the abysmal Tom Cruise based films, so in that regard it’s light years better. I also enjoy that they’re adapting one novel per season, which seems like the right balance of action/pace considering how complex the stories are (not overly so, but not great condensed into a 2hr time slot).