Welcome Chuck. I believe being a Galoot is a state of mind, or lack of it.
If there was a test to join it would be "So you want to be a Galoot? Yes?
You're in."
Since you're familiar with slopes with a big drop at the end you'll get
along fine here. The drop is far less than 400 feet and I've yet to land so
the fall must be slower here on the porch. Interesting variant on the space
time continuum. In this part of the universe you can slide down multiple
slopes at the same time. So far so good.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Ramsey
Subject: [OldTools] Bio
(Short Version) " Please allow me to introduce myself," I'm chuck.
(Longer Version)I'm a 1954 model. Nineteen Illinois winters followed by a
couple of German winters (courtesy of the US Army) and I found my home in
the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I was born a desert rat.Since 1976 I've
spent the most enjoyable, meaningful, and painful moments of my life hiking
in the Grand Canyon. So I know things about slippery slopes (sometimes the
slopes are 60 degrees of sandstone with ball bearing like granules poised
above 400' sheer cliffs).I am too damn old to be a galoot-in-training (and
getting too damn old to work the Grand Canyon cliffs also). But I'm too new
at this to be a galoot. So I guess that makes me a galoot-wannabe.I've been
reading (not lurking since my intentions have been entirely honorable, not
evil) under the porch for a couple of years. I have been and remain
gobsmacked at the collective wisdom, experience, knowledge, and generosity
of spirit of the porch dwellers.My woodworking skills are limited (I can
push things with a stick. Does that count?). And I've had "...a fool for a
master." in the sense of "A self taught man has...". I am by nature and
necessity a bottom feeder. I usually feel foolish when I buy a new tool at
the local H#&% D%!#@. I've wandered the local yard sales, flea markets, and
rust buckets for a while now. I have amassed an assortment of rusty metal
objects that I'm attempting to fettle into a full woodworking hand tool kit.
I am also an second floor apartment dweller so hand powered tools help to
make me a good neighbor. Tho, I've been told not to chop mortises after
10:00pm. My workshop is a small patio opened to the sun. My workbench is a
salvaged (from a dumpster) 4X12 that was on top of a couple of 5-gallon
buckets improved to the same on top of 4 H#&% D%!#@ plastic saw horses
improved to the same on top of a frame bolted together from metal bed rails
(also from local dumpsters). Progress that I'm going to continue this next
year.So...knowing all of that...will you have me? Please? I promise to try
to be good. I'll even try to be nice to those folks from Oz. But I draw
the line at flying monkeys. No flying monkeys! Okay? chuck
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