Dad’s Weekly Report

This past week I got my taxes done. This is a reminder; don’t forget to do your taxes.  It was easier this year because we didn’t have any income from renting out the basement apartment.  This is also unfortunate because we got a tax break from that.  But it is complicated.  Luckily I have Turbo-tax to guide me.  I came out pretty close this year; I get about $450 back.  Sandy was hoping for more.

I also finished up the knife that Lyle asked me to make for him.  The last thing to do was to varnish the handle and get it sharpened.  This time I got it professionally sharpened.  I tried to sharpen it but it seemed like steel was too hard and wouldn’t cut with the stones that I have.  That may mean that the steel is too hard and may be brittle.  However I did temper it until it could be cut slightly with a sharp file, so I think that it okay.  You will never know unless you pry on something with it.  At any rate it now is really sharp.  You can easy shave with it.  I am including a picture of it in this letter.  I hope that Lyle likes it, however it is a pretty big knife and I don’t know what Lyle will do with unless he needs to kill a moose.

I am also including another picture that we took in Hawaii. This is some leaves that we saw at the botanical garden.  I think that the picture really turned out well.  What do you think?

At work, they moved my office last week.  HP is selling the Vancouver site and leasing part of it back.  At least that is the plan.  They are still trying to find a buyer.  As part of the deal they will vacate the building in the front and only lease back the two back buildings.  I got moved to the back-right building.  It is a very large building with high ceilings that was built to house a production line for printers.  Now the production has all been sent to Asia and the building has been turned into a large cube farm.  For as long as I can remember I have been in a 8X10 foot cube.  They moved my whole department into 8X6 foot cubes.  It is temporary move for 2 to 4 weeks.  They are taking the furniture that we vacated to use to set up our permanent place.  I think that we will end up in 8X8 foot cubes.  I complained that my medical problem would make it painful for me to be in a 8X6 cube so they gave me an 8X8 cube right next to the rest of the group. You know, reducing the size of your office doesn’t make happy employees. Some people didn’t even get offices.  HP had someone walk around and check how many people didn’t’ spend enough time in their cubes, people that worked from home a lot or traveled a lot.  Then they set up some open cubes that anyone can use temporarily.

Last week at Fort Vancouver, a guy came out from Virginia to study the archeological collection of axes.  Then on Saturday and Sunday went into the blacksmith shop to try to copy them.  So on Saturday I got to help out.  I drew out some old style blister steel to use as bits.  Then I watched as he built a poll axe.  Do you know what a poll is?  It is a piece of iron that is welded on the back side of the axe, on the side opposite to the blade.  I always thought that it was there so that the axe could be used as a hammer.  I asked him what the poll was for and he didn’t know.  I will have to try my hand at it in the next few weeks.

Take care everyone.