Heh.
Sorry, puntastic title today.
Still needed some cheering up.
Today has been, in my own little personal realm, positive and pleasant. I spent the morning with a friend marking up the timber for the improbably difficult chair I’ve chosen to build. This 4 or so hours of escapism made me feel faintly human again. Because politically, things are pretty bad. So, let’s tell you about the chair before I start gently weeping.
Mid-century modern, and based on apparently a Brazilian design, I’ve chosen to make it from some maple which is… well, it’s a little close to heart wood, and will probably bend and warp as I cut it. It also has, essentially, no 90 degree angles – and I note, they’ve not put the fricking angles on the diagram of the pieces. Similarly, they’ve not actually put some of the thicknesses on some of the diagrams.
My current plan is to enlarge the diagram, measure the angles (I roughly measured them today, so I could sketch out where I think I’m cutting most of the parts from). I marked up one of the pieces of wood with the chunks I need to crosscut and the chunks to rip. Because it’s a longish board and the bits I need are mostly 20″ or so, but all different widths, it’s going to be a fairly complex job. I’m hoping that because I’m doing that now, the bits that are going to bend and warp and do horrid things might get that over and done with before I start trying to make complex shapes from them.
This incidentally, is the model of simplicity.
The advantage is I’ve chosen Western Maple, which is a pretty common wood around here. I also volunteer at a place where they get wood donations, and have a supply of very reasonably priced timber.
So that’s the good bit, the bit makes me feel like this move hasn’t been a terrible idea. Being near Kathryn’s family and near friends who have always been very distant (at the expense of being far from friends who were nearby). That and a work/life balance which at the moment feels pretty much perfect. I work just over half time, and that (theoretically) should provide enough money for us to live on (with Kathryn’s income, not by myself, obviously). That in turn means that I can engage in hobbies, work on stuff for Transport Evolved, and volunteer. I realise this is incredibly lucky.
What’s feeling terrifying is the othering by #45 of trans people. While, thanks to the work of decent reporters, we can call bullshit on the costs excuse, nervousness is starting to ripple into daily life. This othering, it makes it easier for the bigots to bring hatred down upon those of us being othered, and reminds me in a very unnerving way of the precursors to the destruction of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft and its archives, and the treatment of both LGBTQ people and Jewish people in pre-war Germany. I note also that there’s action by the (in)justice department to strip LGBTQ employment protections. All of this makes me feel incredibly wary.
On the one hand I don’t want to equate what’s happening now with 1930’s Germany, but historians keep doing that. Which I think reduces the Godwin’s law possibility of me just assuming that.
