The 13th

The “13^th”

As some of you know I occasionally make walking sticks out of old limbs that I have cut from my trees.  Today I was giving a second coat of varnish to a walking stick that is number 13. Although some people think the number 13 is unlucky, I have though it was just a number. I asked my wife what I should do with stick number 13.  Stop, no she did not tell me that, get you mind out of the gutter. She suggested I send it to Dalton, a friend in Mesquite NV.  Dalton use to take off each Friday 13^th, you could say he was superstitious.  Dalton truly felt that Friday the 13^th was unlucky. 

Dalton and I worked for the same company and it happened that we had to travel on a Friday the 13^th.  As if working at all on the 13^th wasn’t bad enough for Dalton, flying just made it worse. When we arrived at the airport our tickets indicted we were seated in row 13.  For Dalton things were getting worse.  

The flight left Austin Texas without any problems but as the flight ascended to about 10,000 feet the pilot announced that he would deploy the landing because instruments showed the brakes were hot and needed to be cooled off.  We all kind of assumed that meant a fire in the brakes.  There was some noise and the flight was a little rough while the landing gear was deployed.  The flight landed in Chicago without incident.  After that flight Dalton did not have a problem with Friday 13^th, he even started working on Friday the 13^th.

               This afternoon I decided to put a second coat of varnish on #13 walking stick.  It was Donna’s idea to number the sticks as I made them, NO she doesn’t have all the ideas; it was my idea to photograph and catalog them. 

#13 stick doesn’t have any unusual marking other that it has an “L” mark that was probably caused by a worm. I had put my chair next to a small table in the garage.  My coffee and a couple tools on were also on the table.  I opened the Can of varnish and started applying it to #13.  I was about half way through the process when instead of putting the paint brush in the varnish can; I dipped it in my coffee cup.  Yes, that was not a smart move.  Now what to do?  I could clean the brush or I could get a different brush.  “Don’t get ahead of me, I’ll tell this story”, I decided to do neither.  I took the brush that had been in my coffee and dipped it into the varnish.  I could not tell any difference in the look when the varnish/coffee was applied. Stop trying to get ahead of me on this story; I don’t know if coffee is better with a little varnish, I go a new cup of coffee. 

               Sorry I do not have a photo of the walking stick since it isn’t finished yet.

       From the never ending thoughts of “Don Ford “,     

                   Thanks.

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   PS   After writing this article I checked the number on the stick and it was actually #14 but I liked the article and did not change it.