My father and I, we check the locks–
that’s what the Abels do.
Neurosis passed along the line
just like his Craftsman tools.

I see him there, on his rounds,
nocturnal sealing rite.
Here I am, securing doors
against encroaching night.

There was a time when I asked
what does this signify?
Now we double check the doors
and do not worry why.

Rachel and I are too cheap to be collectors. One exception to this general rule is that we have amassed a collection of statues, typically of the gods. Gives the place a certain air, you understand. Lets visitors know what we’re about.

Recently I started looking for a sort of farmerish, gnomish figure to put on our mantle. Silly gnome statues are plentiful but we didn’t want any part of that mess. I was looking for something handmade, unique if possible, and not expensive (see “cheap” above). I found this guy and snapped him up.

I’m no expert so it’s possible this is manufactured and I was fooled into thinking it’s handmade. There’s no date on him but there is this mark on the bottom.

In the course of looking, I came across some other statues that were of the rural sort. Two pairs of farmers/peasants grabbed my attention. One was listed as being Bavarian. Since I have German ancestors and this pair was smiling, I decided to get them.

This couple is more clearly handmade and “Stolt 1960” is carved onto the bottom. In this case, though, I don’t think they’re unique; I was able to find a very similar couple listed online, same artist, but dated 1957. So maybe the person carved several of these figures over the years.

Here’s one of the new folks enjoying this morning’s sunshine.

One alternative to streaming music I don’t think I’ve ever seen discussed: radio! You probably have an oldies (or similar) station in your area with a local connection.

• Music: So, yeah, maybe it isn’t your favorite and maybe you have stronger feelings about music discovery than I do. But oldies are basically another canon of standards at this point. It ain’t bad!

• Local ads: This is America; you don’t get to escape advertising. At least this way you may hear about local businesses and events.

• Local news: Local papers are dead but local radio news does still survive around here, in a much diminished way.

• Live broadcasts of local events: Goofy, for sure. But surely that’s not so bad, here at the end of all things?

The voluntary self-limitation of local radio—tune in and drop out, in a different sense—seems like a good option. This is one of the main ways our parents and grandparents connected to their community when I was young. I remember my blind grandpa sitting by the radio listening to Hoosier basketball. I remember waiting so impatiently to hear whether a snow day would be called—and the thrill when the broadcaster said he had a list of delays and closings to read.

This is a lot of nostalgia, to be sure, and I’m getting a bit off track. Anyway, count me in, WQRK.

Also, I’m putting off reviewing financial reporting this morning.

Projects to complete in the next couple of weeks:

• A 2x10 on one of our raised beds has buckled and needs to be replaced. When we first built these beds, we weren’t considering the chemicals in treated lumber, which is what we used. This will be the first board to replace and we’re going to go untreated from here on out.
• This passing winter I had a series of disappointments in woodworking projects, so I just decided to hold off for a bit until the weather improved and, with it, my mood. I’ll be cleaning up the garage in the spring, as I always do, but I think I’ll also take a bit of extra effort to care for part of the garage and try to regain “beginner’s mind.”

Projects to complete over the course of the summer:

• I’m planning to build a chest that will function like a coffee table for Rachel. I have rough sawn poplar purchased from the Amish. The design is pretty simple; my concern is that it will be the first time I’ve planed rough sawn lumber into a finished condition.
• I need several boxes for various purposes. I built one over the winter and I like the design. I don’t like the combination of red oak and pine that I ended up using. (That wasn’t the plan; one of the aforementioned small frustrations in the shop this winter.) So I plan to experiment with more aesthetically pleasing combinations.

Warm weather explorations:

• We’ll likely make a day trip as a family to Madison, a lovely little town on the Ohio River. If we feel really adventurous we might stay overnight and then make a quick excursion down to Port Royal, KY, home of Wendell Berry. We don’t really “travel” anymore but we do like days out together.
• I definitely want to get in a couple of solo day trips. I’ve never been to Vincennes, which is an important historical site. I also want to visit some of our various indigenous burial mounds and pay my respects.
• My evergreen amusement: visiting flea markets and junk shops just to see what’s up. This year I’ll particularly be looking for folk art carvings.

Skills to build:

• Firestarting without matches.
• Fire building. (I love backyard fires. Can you tell?)
• Sharpening, my perennial bugaboo. I’m getting better. My main problem is I’m always wanting to get past the task because I need to do something else. I don’t carefully attend. I have a tendency to perform an action and believe that the task is completed ex opere operato, without proper attentiveness and observation. In short, I need to take a whole weekend and sharpen all the things until I’m reasonably satisfied. Beginner’s mind, beginner’s mind.

Oh, I could go on but I really need to start reviewing those reports…

Rachel had an appointment in Jasper, IN, last Friday so we made a day of it. Jasper is a pretty unique town in southern Indiana. While the area has a lot of German ancestry, Jasper is one of the few places where it has remained an ongoing identity.

While Rachel was in her appointment, I went to Sturm’s hardware store, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s a store dog, who raced toward me in a flurry of barks when I entered the store.

It’s a crazy cluttered place–as all the most interesting places are. It’s often not even clear what is and is not for sale. Then there’s this spiral staircase in the middle of the store.

Near the front there was a raised platform (“bullpen”?) with piles and piles and piles of catalogs behind, presumably where someone could have made an order for anything not in stock.

Lunch was at Schnitzelbank, always a fun place to eat.

I never finished the Wheel of Time series, but one phrase has stayed with me: “Glory to the builders.” It arises spontaneously when I’m looking a places like St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Let me say from the outset that I do not believe the Trump administration’s destruction of USAID flows from anything like deeply considered principles. That’s obvious, right?

However: In the context of liberals defending the goodness of international aid, it might be instructive to remember that Ivan Illich–hero to many of us on the left–famously opposed international aid. “To Hell with Good Intentions” (pdf) was an invited keynote address delivered in 1968 to a group of people promoting international aid.

By definition, you cannot help being ultimately vacationing salesmen for the middle-class “American Way of Life,” since that is really the only life you know. A group like this could not have developed unless a mood in the United States had supported it - the belief that any true American must share God’s blessings with his poorer fellow men. The idea that every American has something to give, and at all times may, can and should give it, explains why it occurred to students that they could help Mexican peasants “develop” by spending a few months in their villages.

Again, I’m not defending anything about the Trump administration here. But it’s as good a time as any to remember the anti-colonial critique of international, capitalist development.