Golden Rule

I rightly suspect it's true that the vast majority of hobbyist woodworkers are happy just to potter along in their 'shops for a few hours each evening and I'm no exception. We generally have everything 'just so' depending on the way we each like to work...I'm Mr Tidy, so my shop is normally fairly organised and reasonably clean. Occasionally SWIMBO will sweep in just to keep track of what's happening, or Meg's will sneak inside, especially if she's got a vested interest (as in the 'puter desk) in the latest project...but apart from that, I'm left pretty much to my own devices, which suits me fine.

Except for last night.

Last night I had a visitor...Gareth! I've always noticed that it's a peculiar custom amongst cabinet makers (in a shared 'shop) that when you're looking at someone else's work, your hands are clasped tightly behind your back and you stoop forward, peering over the top of your glasses (if you wear them) so the Golden Rule is always 'lookee, no touchee'... but this unspoken rule doesn't seem to apply to bored out of their skull, maths graduates.

Gareth sauntered into the 'shop, with the inevitable Earl Grey brew clutched in his paw, which then got slopped over the bench...great start. He just cannot look at anything without touching and picking something up to examine it...so Tony's long mitre shoot was given a cursory once over and then dropped back onto the bench. He then spotted an ordinary pencil lying innocently on the take-off table, so that got picked up and jammed into my cork block, after which he proceeded to examine the 'Tool Wall' and saw my nylon faced hammer. With some obvious glee, this was used to see what sound could be produced by tapping it several times on various tools lying on the bench top, one of which happened to be a thick, chunky carpenters pencil. Unfortunately, he belted this on the chisel edge so that it leaped a couple of feet into the air and in doing so, broke it, so that I then had to retrieve a chisel from the rack and sharpen a new edge on the pencil...it's a good job I didn't do a little creative surgical remodeling with the LN.

Much as SWIMBO and I would do anything for our No1 son, the saving grace of this situation is that he starts his new job in the City on Monday so we've only got the weekend to survive...praise be!