Fall Is In The Air!

Without a doubt, this is my favorite time of year. From right about now to January, it's almost perfect here in North Texas. It's no longer HOT, and let me tell ya....it gets hot down here! Kinda' like Alaska gets COLD. The days are generally in the 70's and the nights in the '40s. It's the time of year that neither the air conditioner OR the heater runs. You can wear pretty much whatever you want. Anything ranging from shorts to sweats, and be comfortable. 

Psychologically, the holidays are on the horizon, but you don't yet have the hub-bub of it actually being here with the crush of last minute shopping and lots of people in the house. The kids are excited, about the season, but not completely focused on what they are going to get yet. I'll be 2/3rds of the way through the school year next week and the classes are rolling along. 

Football season is in the last few weeks (at least for college) before the bowl season begins and the excitement is building. As a bonus, our high school season came to a close Thursday night in a loss that knocked us out of the playoffs. Let me tell ya....I'm just not a fan of the format where the top 4 teams get into the state playoffs. The "old school" in me just won't accept those bottom teams being there, and that's us this year. 99.9% of the time, you get steamrolled and finish the season in a really ugly way. So, now, my Friday nights are back! If you don't think that's a big deal, I'm here to tell you that it is; in my life at least! What it means is that Saturday is completely yours. Yeah, Saturdays! What our family routinely does is that we get our grocery shopping done that night which gets rid of the cloud hanging over our heads for the rest of the weekend. That's huge, when you consider that I often spend the majority of Sunday afternoons grade essays for my AP World History classes.

Speaking of football and history! Look what I came across today! In my classes, the students will often ask me things about sports and sports as related to history since around town, I'm known as "coach" and I've always taught history. Anyway, the discussion will quite often turn to mascots and teams/schools changing mascots for reasons of "political correctness" (which I've always hated). What I've routinely told the kids has been that I might very well feel differently about the issue if some school in San Francisco or LA (for instance) was called the "Chinks". Lo and Behold, look at that! A flag from the Pekin Community High School (Illinois of all places) who's mascot was the "CHINKS" from 1930's to 1980 at which time it was changed to the Dragons! The mascots would dress like Chinese people.....traditional costume of course. Is that cool or what! 

Obviously, this Frugal Propellerhead post isn't all about fall and football. It's about the fact that the time available and temperature makes it the perfect combination for me to get stuff done. In some ways, it's reminds me of living in New Orleans with it's inverted seasons where people spent May to November running from A/C to A/C and the winter, doing outside activities or sitting at sidewalk cafes.

The first order of business is this. I need to put into action, my plan to turn the garage space into a functional shop. This will in all probability BE this years project. 

The first order of business will be this, or something like it. A lumber cart is needed so that I can not only store my wood away neatly, but actually be able to find what I have.

....Which will then leads to this.....an extended base cabinet for my new table saw. My "shop" such as it is, will be built around this piece which will incorporate, the table saw, the router table and an extended surface to one side that will function as my assembly area. The cabinet itself will then house the majority of my growing power tool collection...... Which will then clear space all around the shop area for things that I don't have yet like a drill press and a band saw.

Here it is: the other project. $10 at a garage sale. I stopped because I spotted a bike that was the correct size for my daughter to start training-wheel-less riding on. Then I spotted this (pun intended). It was the typical, looks like was never used, but been sitting around for so long that there were missing parts telescope. I bought it anyway. It's a lot better than my son's old "garage sale" telescope, so we'll figure it out. 

What I'd really like to do with it, is this. Yes, I know that this Meade is a lot more expensive telescope, but you gotta start somewhere. If we can get to where we are seeing the moon and take a few digital pictures from that, the kids'll be ecstatic! So will I. Something to do in the winter time when it's cold and now that my father-in-law has moved out to this area and more importantly, away from the city....... That's the perfect opportunity for us to take it out there and do a little star gazing. New hobby to learn. Cool!

Now, if I can get myself to do more of this, and less of that, then it'll have been a successful fall/winter season this year.