One of THOSE Days

        Today started out fine, wonderful actually. I got my kerosene heaters sorted out yesterday, so the workshop was nice and toasty. It was a beautiful crisp morning. I had several delicious gallons of coffee out of one of the gorgeous mugs made for me by my talented pal Rachael at OneEleven Pottery.  And I had two projects nearly done that I felt sure I would finish and have photographed with time to spare enough to spend the afternoon sanding in some new projects.
      "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" said Fate.

            It was one of those days where everything went wrong. Every little dumb stupid thing that slowed me down. I misplaced my paint brush a thousand times, I lost screws and bail brass posts, I could not get the damn hardware to work on another damn piece. That was actually the climax of the horrible day, around 2pm, hands literally bloody from trying so hard for so long to get the stupid bastard faulty posts to catch the stupid too short machine screws. Sobbing, I finally threw one of the drawers, which of course smashed, and stormed off to take a second prozac chased with whiskey.

        Then I had to go back to the workshop, put the broken drawer back together, windex my bloody finger prints off the paint, and work for two MORE hours to get those six pulls to finally all be attached. Sometimes I hate my job. This was one of those sometimes.

        On the plus side, I'm now knee deep in a delicious martini, I've lost four pounds in the last two days (all from vented rage?), and I only accidentally dropped and smashed one giant jar of olives at the grocery store while buying supplies to re-heat spaghetti and meatballs (I don't cook, but I can re-heat grocery store cooking!). And this sideboard. This sideboard is on the plus side.

         This sideboard is on the plus side the same way my dogs are on the plus side. Just looking at them makes me happy, just thinking of them makes me happy. Same with this darling sideboard. It has never wronged me, not once. In fact, I suspect this sideboard is rather miraculous.

           A client approached me last week looking for just such a piece, and I'd been eyeing this one for a while on craigslist. The price dropped the day she messaged me, so already we've got some serious furniture serendipity.

           I had a hell of time lining my wacky schedule up with the seller, in the end the only day that worked was Friday. Do ya'll locals remember this past Friday? When it alternated pouring and drizzling non stop? Yeeeaaaaaa. It was a white knuckle ride all the way out to this guy's house, in the rain, thinking something along the lines of "shit shit shit, it's going to rain and I'm going to ruin this sideboard before I even get it home". The moment I pulled into the driveway of the modest raised ranch the skies cleared, and stayed clear all the way home I think there were even some heavenly rays beaming down on my truck, possibly a chorus of angels. The skies had parted like Moses parted the Red Sea, I checked the radar it *should* have been pouring, but it wasn't. Even while I hefted this beast out of my truck and into my workshop by myself nary a droplet fell. The second I closed the workshop door it started pouring like holy hell.

         Perhaps even more miraculous, the top of this c.1930 mahogany piece is flawless, the drawers work perfectly, it's nice and sturdy, the doors don't stick, the drawer pulls came off and back on easily. Nothing about this piece made me want to tear my hair out and run screaming profanities up into the mountains to hide from society until the end of time.

          So let's all raise our martini glasses to this sweet sideboard (I'm assuming you all drink strong liquor on wednesdays too?). She is a beauty with a kindly heart and streak of wicked good luck.