A Space of One's Own

This is mine. And yeah, it's a bit crowded in there. Our place isn't big by any means so finding a space for private thought is difficult in this household. I had such a space (a tiny little corner of a room) set aside for writing, but then gave it up because . . . I suppose that's what the wife and the mother do. That meant my only space was the Woman Cave. As you can see, and as Elvis Costello might sing, it's getting mighty crowded. Since work is being done both to the exterior of our place as well as to the interior of the garage, the surfboards were moved to the safest space I could find. The last thing I needed was someone dinging one of my boards had I left them in the garage. You want to see me lose it? Treat one of my boards like it's invincible, flinging it to and fro. Then watch the slow burn begin. Each ordinary ding costs me about $40. If it's a good ding that also requires color matching, that's potentially somewhere between $60 to $100 out of my usually empty pockets. This is why I squeezed the boards into my already cramped workout space.

It will have been worth it though. I happened to mention to one of the guys working on the place that I would talk to him at a later date about building me some surf racks in the garage. Once the rain came, confining him to working in the garage, he decided he'd do it while he was working in there. Mind you, this guy is a black guy who knows nothing about surfing or surf shops or surf racks. I had to look through someone's blog (thank you, Dave) to find pictures people took while standing in front of a rack of boards. After looking at several of such shots and having me explain the purpose of said rack, I was sent to Home Depot with a list of necessities: 2x4s, dowels, wood screws and probably some other things I can't remember.

By the end of the day, the rack was done. I will add a rope or chain to prevent boards from falling over during an earthquake. But what he did was exactly what I wanted. Once the boards move out, I can workout again in peace.