Stained glass project
Twenty-five years. That’s how long I have dragged around seven boxes of gorgeous glass pieces, all sizes, with equipment to create the stained glass projects. When Chelsea was born I was making stained glass windows, and was in the middle of a particularly beautiful piece for my dad when he died suddenly.
A few days after he died, I tried to finish his piece, but couldn’t see the glass through the tears in my eyes. I put the piece away. Some months later we moved, but our new house didn’t have a place to work on the stained glass, then Alex came along, and my life took another path.
All these years, the boxes of glass have been in storage or have been in the shed, collecting dust and bugs. Two years ago, on our break from the first part of our trip, Chelsea painstakingly washed every piece of glass and packed them in boxes. However, we knew when we packed the glass that it wouldn’t survive being transported by anyone other than us.
We didn’t know how to pack the glass properly, but much to our good fortune, we stayed with Russ and Paul in Centerville, Louisiana in 2008. Paul and Russ have a stained glass artwork business. We had the opportunity of watching them for several days, and during our chats I asked Paul how to pack our glass. He explained that each piece needs to be packed in between pieces of cardboard, then banded together in bunches of five or so, depending on the size and weight.
One stretch of beautiful days in early March Chelsea and I dragged all the boxes out on the porch and dived into the project. We’d been collecting extra boxes for weeks, so we pulled them all out, along with box cutters, tape, and a labeling pen, and got to work. What a job it was!
We had to match all shapes and sizes of glass to a corresponding piece of cardboard, which meant we had to custom cut each piece. We then had to have sturdy boxes to fit each category of sizes. The glass ranged from perhaps two-and-a-half feet square to several inches in size.
By the time we finished we had calluses from the cardboard cutters and a million little glass cuts, but we had carefully packed every single piece of glass so that it will survive storage and moving men. It is deeply satisfying to have a twenty-five year project completed in style.
Tyler’s bicycle
Within a week or two of arriving, Tyler spotted an old touring bike from the 1970s at a friend’s house, and came home as its proud new owner. The bike was in bad shape – lots of rust, needed a new chain, new derailleur, new tires, and new cables, and it needed a thorough cleaning.
Chelsea and Tyler got down to work – we had bike parts all over the living room and porch for over a week. While Tyler did the cosmetic work, Chelsea did the mechanical work – putting on the new chain, the derailleur, and re-cabling it. The derailleur (a cheap one even for its time) developed a fatal problem and had to be replaced, but Chelsea meanwhile learned more about derailleurs, and got good practice in working on a very different style of bicycle.
Tyler’s happy as can be now – he’s got a great bike to use for transportation and exercise.