I actually made some chips today, first "normal" thing I've done for a
month. (Doing taxes and settling an estate is not "normal".) A
friend and neighbor at the lake wanted some clamps made to hold a
special ladder to his dock. They use it to enter the water from the
dock to go swimming.

It's a very simple project, maybe more later when I finish it. The
lake is still ice-covered but that'll change soon. They won't be
swimming in it any time soon, though. All I did today was make eight
1/2" dia stainless posts about 1" long by parting them off in the
lathe. I thru-drilled and tapped one, will do the other 7 when I
return to that task. They're like threaded standoffs. They'll mount
to an ally extrusion, and will receive stainless bolts that snug up
stainless or aluminum crosscaps that grab the ladder posts. The
extrusion fits the dock, came from the dock mfr. I made the posts out
of stainless because I don't like aluminum threads around water.
Stainless on stainless works OK.

Hm. Mary was always in the house when I was doing stuff in the shop.
If something happened, she'd eventually miss me and come out to check.
Maybe I should start calling or emailing one of the kids when I start
something out there, and then call or email again when I'm done for
the day. I never work with tools after Miller time. I never used to
carry a cellphone but I always have one in my pocket now. Not turned
on, of course. "Chatting" on the phone does not appeal to me at all.

Going shooting tomorrow with my gunsmoke luncheon & social friends,
really looking forward to that. I have technically shot since Mary
departed but I didn't know she was gone until I got home from the
range and answered the phone so that doesn't really count.

Later I'll visit my son and his girlfriend at their place for dinner.
They are very good in the kitchen, I'm learning a lot.

I was alone today and tonight but I did see people today: the dentist
and his staff, and the acupuncturist. The front desk gal at the
dentist asked how Mary was. I broke the news to her. She lost it
instantly and Dr. John, who was standing nearby, looked like he'd been
sucker punched. People liked Mary and we'd been going to that
dentist for many years.

Donna lost her hub about 4 years ago, said it took her about a year to
recover. Man, I don't like hearing that but the story is pretty
consistent across the sample of folks I've talked to. OK, so I'm
8.33% of the way, 1/4 mile into a 3 mile hike. The last half is
always easier than the first half. The longest part of an all-day (or
multi-day) journey is the first two hours.

I tried out the new veggie steamer and rice cooker last evening.
Excellent! The rice cooker made perfect rice with no operator
intervention. The veggie steamer overcooked the asparagus but it was
uniformly overcooked. I just need to back off the time a bit. Nuked
aspergrass is never cooked uniformly; the stems or stalks are
underdone when the heads are done to overdone. Steam is better.
Countertop appliance is better than stovetop for me because it has a
timer; I can be outside grilling stuff and the steamer will shut
itself off at a preset time.

Still takin' things one day at a time. Some days are better than
others.