Ah, a breath of fresh air, a splash of cool water, a newly updated blog. Life continues to move on--it does have a tendency to do that, much as we wish it otherwise. Enough intro, on to info. I'm now taking classes, distance learning online with Paralegal Tech Institute. The end result should be Joseph Moss--Certified Legal Assistant or Paralegal in about six months. Classes all are in the evening after eight, leaving room open for a job, which I am in the process of acquiring. Time is also left open for a ballroom dancing class on the side :~). Actually, now that I think about it I've been doing a lot of dancing recently, what with ballroom dancing, contra-dancing, the Hoedown, etc. Can't say I mind though. Have any of y'all, my best beloved/dear reader/the audience etc., ever heard of a blast furnace being made out of two cans and hair dryer? I hadn't either but what does my brother go and do but make one! To briefly explain: my brother has taken up making knives (some of you know about this) from files and barstock or whatever he can find to use. Each knife has been getting better and better. MUCH better. Anyway, he wanted to be able to temper his knifeblades and needed to get them really, really, REALLY hot--1500 degrees or more--and then dunk them in oil. He placed a soup can, about a foot long, in a coffee can, about eight inches long. He cut a hole through both and leaving the top on the soup can cut a slit opening in the side of it where it came above the rim of the coffee can. The area between the cans he filled with sand for insulation and a hole cut through both cans so that the hair dryer can blow into the middle of the inner (soup) can. When the fire was going in the soup can, with the hair dryer blowing on the coals, you could light a large stick on fire by simply touching it to the top of the soup can. Pretty cool. Or hot. When Chris dunked the orange-hot knife in the oil, the oil caught on fire and his knife was nicely tempered.
A rather long-winded discourse but a glimpse through the eyes of Jomoe...More to post latre (maybe next time in Scots?)