*twitch*

I've been feeling a lot of overwhelm and anxiety, which are at once entirely reasonable responses to the past two months, and also thoroughly unhelpful, but mindfulness and meditation only get you so far. We all have our limits. I've been watching too much TV, and playing my music, and working on the design of the new shop, which I have christened "Tinyshop," retroactively naming the current one "Microshop."

I'm not really good with houses—Honor is our "can-do" repair person, energy permitting—partly because I'm not very good at it, and practice doesn't seem to help much. Much like my difficulties in distinguishing plants, or remembering math proofs, it's just a thin area in the wide tapestry of my aptitudes. With Tinyshop, so far I'm not feeling anxious, partly because there are a billion scarier things to be anxious about, but also there's nothing hidden, no crevices for rats to be or tools to get lost. There's nothing fancy or aesthetic: as much as possible, I want it to be like the under-supervised fire-hazard barn theater we had in high school. Exposed wood everywhere, and none of it precious. Need to hang a thing? Drill a hole? Connect a whatever? Have at it. All you need is a dream and a drill.

One of the worst things about Microshop has been the difficulty of moving things around. I have small machine tools, but they still weigh about 150 lbs, and the processes of getting them aligned and mounted—technically the mill isn't and won't be "mounted," it's just been unnecessary—have involved doing things like jamming a hand into the very small clearance under the 90 lbs motor-end of the lathe, and lifting it by curling my fingers. It doesn't have safe prying possibilities. I have wanted a crane the entire time I have had Microshop, and because the roof is only 33" above the (built-in, unchangeable bench), I'm not sure what would work, if anything: things like pullies and material slack take up precious vertical space. That's just for lifting; to actually move horizontally is a bunch more gear and vertical space.

My dream, my rules. I get a crane. Turns out, for home-workshop loads you can buy some basic hardware and make an overhead X-Y crane that will cover almost the entire space. I have 13 feet of vertical space to work with. Being as all the cheap parts are from China, I've been balancing the desire to get them while they're still cheap, against the fact that it all takes up storage space I don't have.

Man. Picking windows. How many? Where do they go? I'm glad it's not getting plumbing and other stuff you need in a living space.

I am very excited. What a magnificent distraction from...all of this other stuff.