On top of things

10 days since my last post, OOPS! I've been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to do anything at the computer other than curse at York university and make telephone calls to the Faculty of Education. But that's a different story altogether...
Anyways, I've picked up a hobby. I've never had a hobby before, and I must say that I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Some of you may consider writing to be my hobby, but it isn't. Hobbies relax you, calm you down and chill you out. You do it purely for the mindlessness, not for the superior achievement. Writing I do as I breathe; it sustains me. My hobby, however, is pure pleasure. I've taken to refinishing wooden furniture, and as strange as that sounds, I'm rather good at it.
The first items I decided to refinish were the old Muskoka chairs hanging out in my backyard. We bought 2 of them almost 10 years ago and maintained them the first year we got them, and then never did again. So I took them out front to my driveway, sat down in the sun in front of them, and sanded them until it felt like my arms might fall off. First with coarse grit, then with fine grit, until you could almost see their original blond colour. They had turned a flaky, ugly grey from mold and rain damage, as well as snow and such, so getting them back to something other than yucky was a huge achievement. Then Dieter the wonder-neighbour told me he had some outdoor furniture stain I could use on them, so I painted them twice with it and now they look pretty nice. I have muscle definition in my arms now from sanding, so I think I might keep at it.
The second item I decided to refinish was my kitchen table-top. My mom bought the solid pine table at a Sears outlet 27 years ago for $60 because the surface had a few scratches in it. Shortly thereafter she met my dad and he said he would refinish it for her. 27 years later, I did it instead. I sanded down past the varnish and the stain and made the table-top smooth and clean, and then painted on 2 coats of stain in the shade "Gunstock" (I didn't choose the name!), which is a deep shade of brown-red. Then I put on 3 coats of varnish to keep the table gleaming and clean. It looks fantastic, like a whole new table. Next summer maybe I'll remove the legs and refinish them, too!
These two projects took me the better part of 5 days, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent on them. Listening to Q107 from a clock radio in the sunshine is how I'd rather spend my days. And who cares if my new hobby isn't feminine! I accomplished a lot, and I'm really pleased.

Pictures of the projects to come.

-Laur