every time a door closes, you better notice before you try to walk into a closed door.

There's a lot going on behind my eyes these days. Sadness, loss, integration. I still can't read the news, really. One thing at a time, or, at least, as few things at a time as possible.

Through a complex sequence of events outside my control, I find myself between jobs again. It's not the worst thing: I have much more energy for doing errands or projects when I'm not spending my days being diplomatic to people who are making bad decisions. I'm not worried about finding another job, this time with an earlier-stage company where I can have an impact on the culture as it's ramping up. I've been able to pick up some tasks around the place, since it's Anna's turn to be working a lot.

Something I never really appreciated about machine tools is that they can just be their own project. I tried some test cuts on the lathe, and of course it was uselessly rough, but that was because the lathe bounced a little on its rubber feet, and the trailer bounced on its suspension and tires, and machine tools have to be as rigid as possible. So I go to take off the rubber feet—which I had put on when I unpacked the thing, and that sucked—and there's this whole challenge of lifting something on the bench, and it's 100 pounds, but focused in a small area, and it comes with a sheet metal tray to catch chips (the metal bits removed by machining) and cutting fluid and such. The tray isn't rigid enough to lever the machine up with. What you can lever it with are the feet of the cast-iron frame, but you have to lever the lathe up just to get to the Allen-key mounting screws holding the rubber feet on, then get the tray out of the way, the lathe on blocks and moved down the bench, then drilling mount holes through the bench, then...

I am famously terrible at this particular task of drilling holes using only measured distances. Anna is amazing at it, but even she couldn't make progress on this. I'm resorting to a brute-force tool called "transfer screws," which are literally sharp points that you screw into all the holes you want to transfer from a source workpiece to a matching workpiece. It's me saying "yes, I understand that I have the exact measurements for the mount holes, but I'm giving up and I'm going to stab my way to success."

As a DIY project, this has already held my interest more than any other DIY project ever has, and I haven't actually been able to make any parts yet. Once it's mounted to the bench, and the shed is installed, and the trailer is jacked up off the suspension, then I'll be aligning the lathe properly, and then...I can make more tools. For the lathe. You see? It's very satisfying. I could use a machinist's hammer. And some clamps. Maybe some keychains or beads or something. I dunno. I don't normally learn stuff to accomplish something; my primary hobby is learning stuff.