Jack of All Trades

This last week or so I've managed to be more things to more people than I'd ever thought possible.
I've been driving a 5-ton delivery truck at "work;" the guy I was doing deliveries with on Thursday took one look at the two-range stick-shift and said "you're driving." I've never considered myself particularly adept with big trucks, but I managed to back this one into four different hotel loading docks without so much as a nicked mirror. Maybe the truck driving gene got passed on to me after all, and I've just been avoiding it because it's always meant working for my father...

I've been figuring out 220V wiring in the shop (luckily I didn't have to install anything), and three-phase Alternating current for the motor on my grinder. Who knew that you could vary the speed of an electrical motor simply by changing the phase of oscillation on a three-leg circuit?
[crickets chirping]
Well I think it's fascinating.

After getting the grinder up and running, I've managed to put it to work and turn out a couple of blades, ready for heat treat and finishing. Hopefully the heat-treater I found in the yellow pages knows what he's doing... (though i can't complain about the price: one case of Sleeman Honey Brown...)

Last night, I played nurse for a while: Grandpa managed to split his fingernail open whilst pounding a stake out in the garden. After field-dressing the finger, I followed him around for about half an hour, helping clear trees off the road and pound more stakes while reminding him to stop working and rest his finger. I also had to convince my grandmother not to "clean out" the broken nail with cold water...
Grandparents listen about as well as four-year-olds. Yeesh.

Now that I've finally got a week off, all I have to do is finish up a couple of conference-paper proposals, defuse a pending lawsuit (more on that later...), find tech volunteers for Thursday night services at the church, finish transcribing a DVD for a friend, stop my grandpa from cutting down the rest of the poplar trees, make sure I put the wheels back on my bike properly and get it ready for a trip, figure out if I can get my uncle's darkroom back up and running, re-pave my patio, finally get wireless internet out to the cabin...

And, just to make things interesting, it'll be another scorching-hot day tomorrow.

I love summertime!