Like father, like son.

Once upon a time, a loooonnnngg time ago, but not so long ago I can't remember, we had a garage. We even parked cars in our garage. Then came the woodshop. Don't get me wrong. We love the woodshop. It's wonderful to live with "Tim the tool man" There are a lot of projects in our house I owe to Tim, as do many other neighbors and family members. So when I'm scraping ice and snow off my windows through the entire winter, I remember my shelves, my benches, my cutting boards, my night stands... Yes, it does make scraping snow and ice off windows a little more bearable.

So on to the story. I promised Nate a project in the woodshop the other day. In the ideal, perfect world, dad would have been helping him, but in the real world, dad had to leave for work, and I got to be Nate's assistant. Actually, I had a lot of fun watching him work, and was amazed at his abilities, especially since neither of us are allowed to use tools when Tim isn't around. :-) Nate started off with a foot long 2"x4". He clamped it in the clamp on the wood table, and started sawing away...with the handsaw! He sawed the entire length of the board, and then wanted to sand it. We cheated; we did use the power sander. While sanding, Nate discovered he could shape the wood pieces with the sander, and started making a pinewood derby car. He then got out the chalk line, and marked across the edges where he'll cut with Tim when they're out there together. He has plans to get wheels, etc. He's a little too old to race it, but the therapist in me thinks he's resolving all kinds of past issues that have to do with letting his dad, the woodshop expert, make his pinewood derby cars. He lost twice. Apparently expertice with wood doesn't win pinewood derbys. Kidding aside, I loved to watch his creativity. Being one of those artistically challenged people who can look at a block of wood and see...a block of wood, I admire anyone who can make a 3-D image move from their mind to an object. On this particular day I was happy to play assistant. I held the table while he sawed, and plugged in the power sander...and just enjoyed getting out of his way and watching him work.