Sarabi Shirt For TJ

The dear friend of my oldest grandson, Travis (aka TJ) , by the name of Kailyn, surprised him with this shirt.  When I first looked at it I just saw what I thought was typical Hawaiian shirt with flowers and palm trees.  On closer inspection I was totally taken back to discover the images of his dog named Sarabi.

The shirt looked like a Tommy Bahama shirt at first glance.  TJ in a text said it was from the Tommy Rabhama 2023 collection.

Petition Book Stand

For a number of years, probably 3  or 4, I looked at the stand that held the Petition Book located by the baptismal font at the rear of the church.  The face of the stand had a strip of oak that ran the entire face near the bottom that held the book in place and on display while not in use. I kept telling my fellow sacristans and ushers that I was gong to fix the broken parts and restore it to like new “one of these days”.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and finally months turned into years.  Then one Sunday as I was leaving church I spotted the stand, as I always did, and I decided that this was the week I was going to live up to my promise and get this thing done.  

I called the church office the next day and asked if I could come over and pick up the stand, repair it and return it the next day.  I was told that that would be fine.  

When I got there Father Ace, the Pastor of St. James, was in the office and he opened the church for me and was interesting in what I was doing.  I explained my thoughts and now the pressure was on to do a good job.

I thought the bottom rest just needed to be routed out and a new support strip fitted and glued back in its place but when I got it to the shop I could see the bottom was cracked and parts missing so I decided to cut the whole bottom off with my track saw and replace it with some scrap red oak I had left over from another project.  

So after making the piece, clamping it into place, and routing a slot for the rest piece it was almost done.  All that was left was the polyurethane finish and 24 hours to dry and to get the chemical smell to dissipate.   

Got it back to church the next day and now I smile ever time I walk back there. Oh, and I tell everybody I see back there “I did that!”.