Some days are harder to start than others, even with a good cup of coffee. Alex and I sat on the porch this morning to watch the day begin and wait for Ryanne to arrive.

Make no mistake about it, Alex is getting ready to crawl. He has been working on a new trick - kind of a military belly crawl using his knees and elbows to slink along the floor. He's gotten much faster now too.
Another thing that's lots of fun to do is pull on Daddy's hair...

He always makes the funniest noises when you do that! Eeeeh! Ooooh! Arrrgh!

In other news, here's what the garage door currently looks like:

Here is what the garage door WILL look like once I'm done with my little side-project:

I ran into just one little snag though. The door frame doesn't have 2x6 trim around the inside as recommended by the manufacturer. So I mounted the track inside the door jamb, where it fits EXACTLY. Only problem is that there's no room to lift the door now, as it butts right up against the top of the frame!
I'm going to have to trim some of the header off and move the tracks back a couple of inches so the door will clear the door frame. Nothing in our house is "standard" or "by the book". Nothing.

Tonight my buddy Tyr came by the house to help me and Dana maneuver my Grandpa's lathe down the basement stairs. The shop down there is a perfect place for this beautiful classic machine. Unfortunately the darn thing must weight 200 lbs without its motor! Finally we just ended up scooting and grunting it down the stairs and over to the workbench. We managed to hoist it into place and re-align everything. To my great joy, after just a little tuning it purred back to life just like it was still in my Grandpa's shop in Oregon. It'll take my 29-year old back a few hours (days?) to recover, but that's the worst of it.

Tyr and I spent an hour or so tinkering with all of the gears, screw drives, and pulleys to figure out how everything works. It might just give the new sewing machine a run for its money in terms of mechanical complexity. We were tickled to find that despite its age and apparent complexity, we could understand how everything worked. The coolest feature we tested was the automatic tool movement, where the motor drives the tool mount in and out, forward and back at varying speeds. We considered many uses for this capability. It's intended purpose is for precisely turning bolts and screws, but we realized one could also use it to etch a phonograph master disc, among other things.

My Grandpa was happy to know that I'd take care of and enjoy using his lathe. I need a good project to get started with it, but that's just a matter of time. As happy as I am to have the lathe set up and working as good as ever, it's no substitute for its former owner. I wish he could show me just a few more little tricks.