Ha! She, unlike me, has college to go to. And a part time job. I have only the full-time job and the extra writing work on the side. Anyway, here's today's report:
Oh boy.
So, it's Tuesday. The kids are back in school (just one hour today, but you take what you can get, right?) and I have another few days off work - back in on the 10th. In theory, I have all this time to work on Derek and finish two pieces of writing. IN practice, of course there's no ACTUAL time for me, I have to pick up cars, and get them serviced, and take animals to the vet, and cook, and hey, while you're at it, stick a broom up my... You know what? I'm getting off topic.
With my birthday money, I finally hit "purchase" on the light up blue rope stuff I was hoping to line the underneath with for our glowing levitation field. Except it turns out they didn't say "rope" on the advert after all. Because it's string.
Long enough to go around the whole of the underneath, not big enough or bright enough to be actually visible. D'oh! Strike one!
Never mind.
Eldest done a good job on the dome, but now we need another layer of filler all round, and I'm out. Have to go (gulp!) buy some. Ran out of birthday money purchasing the Raspberry Pi to run the lights (which we don't have yet) and the sounds (which we do have). Will it arrive in time? According to the delivery date, either two weeks ahead of time, or three days after the event. Anyone want to guess which one? Strike two!
So my first job this morning was a little more sanding, then some household paint around the shoulders as a surfacing method. They're not smooth, but this will help, and when it's all the same colour, it helps me relax a little. We're not building an Ironside, by the way - this was just the only full and "not in current use" paint. Because urgh, it's muddy green!
Then I remembered I was going to do the wires for the gun today. I constructed the cunning device:
I measured, bent, measured, bent, and cut. See all that measuring? Complete waste of time.
Way too short. Why? I have no idea. I mean, obviously, impatience and incompetence are high on the list of suspects, but COME ON!
So, fling that one away, start again.
Measure, bend, measure, bend, cut. YAY!
I'm used to disappointing results. I have never yet stood back from a project of mine and said anything more satisfied than "That'll do, I guess." This thing is bigger than anything I've tried before, it's way more complex, and requires actual skill. It really requires actual tools too. Man, I wish I had a vise. You do NOT want to see what's holding the gun assembly to that workbench....
Anyway, I have, what, seven more wires to measure and bend, and fit into the gun without breaking the first one. I have the dome to fill and sand, and then we have to think about cutting the slot for the eye-stalk we still don't have. I should maybe run out to the store for more filler, and see if they have a pot of optimism while I'm there.