Happy Thanksgiving

I just got home from my sister's house where my family experienced a fabulous Thanksgiving meal. While I has eating some of my Mom's salad which was complete with raisins, nuts and bacon; it hit me what a wonderful combination of flavors was happening (including the wine).

I had sat down earlier in the week to put up a woodworking Thanksgiving post but as the pastor of our church once said of writing a sermon, I could never land the plane - I couldn't get all my thoughts together to finish the post.

But it is very worthwhile to say I am thankful. As some of you know, I work for Mohawk Industries, a flooring manufacturer, and as anybody who works in a business that touches the housing industry knows, times are tough. Plus, flooring is always a big ticket item. It is hard to spend money on flooring when that money competes with a big screen TV, or the cost of a car repair, among other things. Layoffs continue in our company and I am thankful to have a job.

I am thankful that I have money at all to spend on lumber. I could not have completed the Tornado Bed if it were not for the awesome donations that came in.

But most importantly, I am thankful that I have a wife who understands when I want to head into my workshop instead of fixing the partially repaired, big hole in the wall of our master bedroom (the result of a plumbing repair). She tolerates the fact that I would rather work on a furniture project than fix the leaning newel post that greats visitors to our home. And she takes it all in stride when we sit down to a meal in our dining room which has a partially completed crown molding project.

So, this year, I am thankful for so many things like being able to send my daughter to the awesome University of Alabama, but I am most thankful for my wife. The best wife a woodworker could have.