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Showing posts from January, 2015

Sparks fly...

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                                                     A Welder’s Experience   By: Elizabeth and Michael Today a welder came on our boat.   He is very nice.   He had to train for a year before getting a license.   He is so good he never has sparks flying everywhere.   His hardest job was when he had to build a spiral staircase.   He likes welding and even creates paperweights and metal flower decorations.    The welding tool he uses is called a ‘tig’.   Its fire gets hot enough to melt metal. He sometimes burns his hands, but they get tougher. After he uses the tig, he puts acid on the new weld, which takes of the brownish-blackish burnt metal.    If acid gets on his hands, they turn yellow and start to burn.   The other tools that he uses are a grinder, a sander, and a polisher.   Each one of these is used for making the weld shiny and smooth.   He let us look at the sun through his welder’s helmet to see how much it shades your eyes.

Girls Just Wanna Have...

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Sure, Cyndi Lauper was right when she sang “girls just wanna have fu-un”, but, oh, there’s so much more girls want, isn’t there?  And, alas, all girls are not created equally, are they?  Thank goodness - no.  My group of friends back in Colorado is as varied as the items on the shelf of the general store we walked into yesterday, where the toothpaste shared a shelf with a lonely, last sack of locally grown tomatoes.  Some days I need toothpaste, but other days I’m relieved to snatch up those last few tomatoes.  Our wants and desires are what make us different from each other, and they are also how we connect and contribute to those around us. Some women want love and belonging, while others want independence and solidarity.  Some want calm, while others crave a bit of chaos.  Some want to be cherished, while others want to be challenged.  Some want quiet, while others thrive in a crowd.  I’ve realized in this stage of my life (why I’m still wresting with this now, I’ll never