A "Look" at the Garage

Snow has arrived in Tahoe... There is about eight inches on the ground at the house. And, that means that I need a place to keep picking away at the very long to do list. The garage would be a great place...

So, I spent several hours cleaning out the garage on Saturday. It had become a catch-all for just about everything. There is about 500 linear feet of barnwood, the remainder of the stone that we used on the fireplace and entry way, a whole stack of windows, a few doors (both old and new), some forty odd sheets of corrugated metal, and a bunch of large tools. 

A little stacking here, rearranging there, and organizing everywhere... pretty soon, really about eight hours, I have had a suitable workshop that will keep me busy most weekends this coming winter.

Really not that exciting, especially cause I don't have any pics of my cool new man cave, but there is a little side story...

As part of my garage make over, I built a workbench out of recycled lumber that had been laying out in the backyard, probably for several years. I don't know what Rick had used the lumber for, but it had plenty of nails in it... really big nails. My not so detailed plans for the workbench did not include any real big, rusty nails. 

So, the first step in making the bench top was to pull all the nails, a simple enough task that only involved a hammer and a crowbar. It should have involved safety glasses. The very first nail I laid the crowbar to came lose from the board like a bullet... well, maybe not quite like a bullet, but it hit me in the eye like a right cross from a prize fighter. After staggering around like a drunken sailor for a few seconds I pulled my hand away from my eye and noticed blood. 

My first thought was, I hope that's from the skin somewhere around my eye. It wasn't. After staggering to the house and telling Caren that I had good news... I think I said, "The good news is that I can still see, kinda." I looked in the mirror with my good eye and could easily make out the impression of the head of a sixteen penny nail in my bad eye. How lucky am I that the nail hit head first instead of point first? Halloween is over and it is not good form to go walking around in November with a nail sticking out of one's eye when one should be busily preparing for Thanksgiving.

Anyways, after flushing the eye out repeatedly and digging out a chunk of rust, I am pretty sure that my eye will be fine. The nail hit the white. I don't know the fancy terms for the important parts of the eye... cornea, pupil, iris??? but I do know that none of them were damaged because I can still see fine. The whole left side of my left eye is red where it should be white right now, but I'm sure that will clear up in a week or two. I probably should go to the doc and get a tetanus shot though.

And, always wear safety glasses! 

sorry that I don't have any pictures... the man cave is really not that exciting and Caren says that my eye looks really gross.