Friday, February 14, 2020

She said YES

We both been married before, both widows and we have decided to spent the rest of our life together.
She wants a regular wedding in the Catholic Church, so I am playing along, and going thru the rituals.  From courting, to proposition, etc etc... :-)

Being always unconventional, I figured we should start with a dry rehearsal of the honeymoon, so I took her off to Cayo Gulliermo in Cuba recently.
On a more serious note, having recently lost her mother, it was a timely and well deserved time to get away from everything.

Jean taking in the view from the entrance to the resort.
Infinity pools and the ocean


Of course part of the rituals, included proposing to her formally, by presenting her with a ring.
But said ring had to be presented in a box I was to make, her idea.

Of course the day chosen for propositioning her was today Feb 14th Saint Valentin day, and we just recently came back from Cuba, Tempus Fugit...

From this white beach to ...

...This white beach :-)
That was at Steve and Debbie place, where they were babysitting our dogs.
Debbie and Steve are the other set of grandparents to our grand kids. 

I racked my brain(s) over that box for a little while.  Believed it or not, my first inclination was to dovetailed the box, but being a small ring's box, that was quickly discarded as being a bit on the small and ridiculous side.  Then what??  Looking thru my recently re-sorted box of exotic woods, I thought, perhaps a bandsaw box? or carve something.  If you are used to carve Basswood and then try some of these rock hard exotics (many contains silica, which is murder on your edges), then you quickly abandoned that bright idea.

The other day we gave the dogs their baths and while they were chilling out afterward, I slipped downstairs to try something else.


Found a nice piece of Bird's eye maple, squared off two corners, then drilled a hole with a Forstner bit

Two corner edges are now squared off and I quickly (lightly) planed off a small area on both sides, before drilling.

It is a lot easier to hold a board under the drill press than a small cube, hence my sequence of operation

On my first nite, that is where I stopped, while I pondered where I am going with this...
Yes, Cuban rum and coke :-)

Overnite I tossed some ideas in the brain bucket, and proceed from there.

decided to make a cover from a different species.
Some uncarvable African exotic :-)
The blue/green speckles are remnants of fabric from a previous experiment

The cover was given a bevel around the top edges

Found some suitable hinges.
Would had prefer some thing better, but that is all I had.
The screws were a bit long, so to avoid blowing thru, I snipped the end of the screws
 with a side cutter. 

All my screws holes were pre drilled using my small LV Bird cage awl


I tried various material to make a ring holder in the cavity, cardboard, various density of foams, fabric covered or not etc.  In the end, my best bet was a piece of foam cut from a pipe insulating sleeve.

It gave me the right resilience to accept the ring and hold it.

The box, oiled and waxed



my final product


So this morning, I got on my knee and proposed to her officially, and she said ...YES


Our wedding date would be on Oct 14th 2020, in Middleton Nova Scotia.

Here goes my tool budget for a while :-)


Bob, off to Rotary duties

13 comments:

  1. Congrats Bob. Nice job on whipping up the ring box so quickly.

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  2. Thanks Ralph
    I find my box to be a bit on the tall side, and I wishes I could had cut a bigger bevel on the cover, but with the deep hole inside, i was worried about cutting into it. Quick labour of love, she likes it, im happy :-)

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  3. Hi Bob,
    great idea for work on the box ( ring holder ) It went hand in hand with your ability to work with wood. Great job.

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    1. Thanks David.
      Coming from you, it's even more special to me.

      Bob

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  4. Congratulations Bob, wish you both long life and happiness!

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  5. Congratulations, Bob. With my knees, if I got down on one knee there's no telling if I'd be able to get back up!

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    1. Haha Matt guess what happened to me with arthritis in my knees?
      Had some difficulties going back up. Either that or it was the shock of hearing Yes? :-)
      Oh, that and the dogs pushing around all excited (is that food Dad?? No, its a treat for mommy) didn't help.

      Bob, still sipping coffee (NATO Standard)

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  6. Bob,

    First congrats to you and Jean. MsBubba and I went through it a year ago. After 15 years of living in sin she decided to make an honest man out of me. So far it has worked well, saved a bunch of money on taxes and she was able to retire a year early. Other than that not much has changed. I still get the side eye when I do dumb things (which is often) and I know I'm not any smarter or a better dancer.

    ken

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    Replies
    1. I am married for 9 years now, and as stupid looking as it can be, I still surprise myself when I say something about "my wife", I cannot get used to it and 9 years later that still looks amazingly gigantic for me :)

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    2. Thanks Ken, appreciated.
      15 years, took Heather and me 30, before we finally said I do. The day before my last day at work actually.

      Bob, who is not waiting 30 years this time around :-)

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  7. Haha Lionel, you'll get used to it :-) Like Ken I was living in sin with Heather for a long time before we got married, 30 years to be exact. But we always referred to each other as spouses.
    Before passing she gave me permission to remarry, to which I responded: Dear, you know me, 30 years dating before wedding, ill be in my 90s, forget about it (yes we both had a good laugh at that :-)
    I was not looking for a relationship, but it happened and i'm happy it did. Something, the life I lived long ago taught me, is Life is too short. Enjoy the ride, love and live

    Bob, about to start his life V2.0 :-)

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  8. Congrats Bob

    All the best wishes for your life together.

    Best regards
    Jonas

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  9. Thanks Jonas
    Good to hear from you.

    Bob, home with the grand kids

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