Nearly a Week

Tomorrow will be the end of my first week in the foundry. So far, so good. I'm not having a problem with the heavy lifting and such. I've already been doing that since we arrived here. What is killing me is the assembly work; lots of bending and manipulating various gauges of copper wire to put in the clappers, build the hangers, etc., grinder and wire wheel work, and drill press work. Fingers, wrists, arms, shoulders, back; all sore from unfamiliar work. But every day gets easier and I'm a little less stiff when I get out of bed. I expect the worse is already over, and in a couple weeks, it will all be routine.

I won't be actually molding bells for a couple more weeks at least. In the meantime, I spend all morning on the grinder/wire wheel, then all afternoon on the drill press and putting the bells together. It is still rather easy to spot my bells; they are the ones with the malformed loops on top and crooked clappers. But they are getting better. My first attempt at assembly had everyone rolling on the ground; now it's just a stifled giggle and a "not bad."

I also had some more EWWWW GROSS! pictures. This time it was a giant desert centipede. It was only 6 or 7 inches long, not the foot-long they can get to. Way creepier than the tarantula. But I don't have any good pictures of it, because it had been captured in a clear plastic container. No matter what I did, the pictures only show my camera's reflection in the plastic instead of the centipede. In any case, the picture at the above link looks exactly like it and is approximately the same length.

Oh, and if you are interested, it was found cruising the women's bathroom, not outside like the tarantula. Anyone like to come out for a visit?