Monday, Memorial Day

I am thankful to the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country.

I cleaned my garage. This was not a hideous task as it may be for some people. Our friends, Richard and Loraine spent the day with us. I am not sure about the sanity of friends who happily spend the day cleaning some else’s garage, but I am grateful nonetheless. Thanks to their help I now have a clean garage, a place to park my car (which has not been parked in the garage once in seven years) and a functional work bench for a home chemistry lab. This is where I plan to practice my maniacal laughter as I work through the lab exercises from the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science).

Karen is dead certain the only reason I spent the entire day working in the garage was to get it ready for a lab. I disagree. I want to have a place to park the car out of the weather, which is very windy and wet in the winter. Also, if I move the car back out into the driveway, I have a large clear floor space available to set up a large work table if I need the lab space. Keeping the car in the garage means I always have the space available. See, I am not completely self-serving.

I still need to level the work bench and screw down a more durable work counter. I plan to keep the counter cheap. I can go to Home Depot and get a sheet of melamine-covered particle board for a countertop. Once I cut it to fit the existing bench, I will have about 32 square feet of spill resistant counter space. I will post pictures.