The Joys of Carpentry

Though I wear a lot of hats at work, I guess you can call me a research scientist. But the higher you get in the research system, the more you oversee people, set direction, and deal with burocracy, and the less you actually get to do research with your own hands. But while I can't complain about the pay, and I very much like what I do, there are a lot of days when I wish I could do some of that research myself again. Going out and collecting specimens in the field on a nice day (or even a bad day) is always fun. And planning and running experiments is also fulfilling, particularly when you get good results. In short, I guess its satisfying to create and compete something with your own hands. Well, to me at least.

And its doubly satisfying when that thing is something you can see, feel, or touch, and something that will last for a while. Which is why I'm having fun rebuilding my deck. Now I'm no carpenter, but I'm relatively handy, and I guess I'm competent with power tools. Like any project this size, there will be bumps in the road--last night I had a bear of time getting joist hangers where I wanted them, and I have a bunch of bloody knuckles--but the end will be worth it. I think that there's something therapeutic to things like carpentry.

I think it also harkens back to simpler times, without the rat race that many of are sucked into. There are plenty of times I'll drive through a small town up here in Vermont or New York, and I'll think that it would be nice to work in town and run something like the diner, or hardware store, or stationer. I know its unrealistic, and that shops like that are having a hard time making ends meet, but to me sometimes it looks like a joy.

Maybe the images of 50's-style Americana have just been burned into my head too many times, and I've bought in. But I don't see much of that Americana today--the towns where everyone knows you and would go out of their way to help you. Perhaps I'm finding some of that in making my deck, and, for now at least, its been gratifying.