(Thought the better of it and deleted!)

I was composing a response, but this Houss page burped and I lost it all.

Thanks for catching that, typo, Lucille 🤣 Although we might be more ”radio” saw people.

I try to type, but between the autocorrect, sore body, lousy reading glasses and discomfort, it takes forever and there are still lots of goofs.

Elmer, we have a lot of tools, many bought for cheap, or inherited. Non talent. I am a tad 3-D challenged, and puny with a small frame, aches and pains. I am motivated.

DH not particularly motivated. Wish he were.

Chain saws, Hand saws, bow saws, pruning saws, pole saw. Jacknives.

Circular saw, oldish saber saw/“jig saw” vertical saw.

Random orbital sander, Electric drill, battery operated drill.

A huge monster robust older table saw that our builder used and we bough from him for some reason. It scares the becheeses out of me and is loud. DH had used it a bit, but is not versed in table saw use. I wanted to get my late father,s little Craftsman table saw, and deserved it for taking care of him and my mom during their final days and hours, but an older sibling pulled a greedy stunt and grabbed it for her kid. I was thinking the smaller Table saw wouldn’t hurt as much if it took my arm off.

We nave a good sized radial arm saw that (for some reason, dreaming) we bought from my dad Over 20 years ago. Dad cautioned to be very careful as that sort of saw was expert at removing arms.

It is in a corner of the cellar and I never used it and don’t know that DH ever has.

A plane or two. Some chisel/s

An electric grinder

A level, one of those right angle carpenter’s ruler things

Maybe a speed square?

I grew up around certain wood working tools, but my father was usually in a rush to fix something and there were no real teachable moments other than warnings to not attempt to use or tinker with his tools.

DH grew up more with mechanical tools, but his father was not the patient teaching type. DH gravitated towards mathematics and engineering and computer science.

He used to do things for us like tune up cars. Once, after asking, begging, nagging him to make a simple hanging rack (in cellar, from floor joists) so that we could get various lumber and sailboats spars off the floor or out of the corner —— I think it took three to five years of asking, begging. I explained how he could do it, that if I had his height and arm strength, I would have done it. Geez! Two sets of pine sticks hanging perpendicular to the joists, about 5 or 6 ft. apart, screwed in, two places so no pivoting. Fasten a couple of pieces to each set of hangers in order ro support wood lumber, planks or spars. CHEESES! Grrrr. He wouldn’t even try and I remember just calling it quits and driving off to do something else and thinking how I could do it but I’d have to get up on a ladder or some staging and then have enough energy and arm strength to hold the drill as I was holding the timber pieces I wanted to fasten.

When I returned after about three hours, he came up to me apologizing and told me he didn’t know why he was so anxious about doing such a simple thing and then he had looked online or YouTube and thought about it and had made a nice little rack very solid very nice very quick very easy. So who knows what all the catastrophe was about but I think he wasn’t confident and was somehow afraid he would screw it up.

He can write a couple of USB drivers in short order and various other software projects and other things. untangled software create new software and run projects, but this simple thing with a couple of toothpicks and a nail and hammer flummoxed him.

At a later date, he made another hanging lumber rack. But that was years ago and for the last 18 years, I can’t say that he’s particularly motivated or ambitious about anything. I need to find some way to put a couple of probes in his head and see if he’s cooked enough because he doesn’t even wanna help clean anything or organize anything and he drives me bonkers.

He’s usually a good natured person and will cook and grocery shop and pay bills and fiddle around with software and electronic devices.

I’ve been asking him to help me, put the cupboard doors on for years now. I took them off to refinish them, but had some injuries and was in

/still am in a lot of pain and when I would grasp anything like a block of sandpaper, grasping, and with my hand would a get a certain type of tendinitis that was very, very painful. I could do a little bit, but quickly developed very, very painful to De Quervain tendinitis that feels as though my tendons are being held next to a blowtorch. The pain lasts for days and even blowing my nose into a hanky hurts.

These days, I cannot get DH to do much of anything and feel like I need to sort of keep minding him. That is another huge ongoing situation. Stressful.

I grew up with a lots of hands-on resourceful people. I am that way and somewhat enterprising. Injuries and pain have greatly impacted what I can do.

We buy cut and split firewood, ~ $300/ cord these days. So it irks me to see good firewood logs rotting across the road from us and DH being so disinclined. Unmotivated? He says he’s not depressed. I’m not sure that he would know.

Now that it's just 2 of us, I tend to chop and spin salad greens and refrigerate them in a covered metal bowl - they stay crisp and fresh for many days and I can add other things to them for the salad du jour. I make individual salads to accompany a meal for us in ceramic bowls, usually. Sometimes if it's a main side to a steak, I put the salad on the side of our steak platters.

I use a footed trifle bowl for 7-layer-salad when I have an occasion to make one. Jilly - I have that same salad bowl from World Market for neighborhood potlucks and picnics - it's a conversation piece

I do!

A few years ago, DH had to pick something up in Wal-Mart (I can’t remember what). I hadn’t been in one in years.

I browsed around while waiting and came across these nice, heavy, pottery-style Better Homes & Gardens bowls. They were very inexpensive.

We needed pasta, salad, soup, etc bowls so I bought two to try. Loved them, went back for more …. all gone.

I use these daily! I’m so mad at myself for not getting a set of four or six.

I have a giant stainless steel bowl from my in-laws which they used for icing veggies after blanching...they froze acres of veggies from their garden. It is amazing for mixing breads and all kinds of casseroles before consolidating into a casserole dish....lots of room for thorough mixing of disparate ingredients.