Some confusion at home today when I yelled to Nancy on the other side of the house earlier that Bob Dole passed away at age 98 (the veracity of the actual name spoken is under debate). She replied "Wow! And he just released another tune" I said "Really? I didn't know!" I thought “good for him.” Its not uncommon for politicians and other famous people to express their musical sides, even with a lack of musical talent. Consider William Shatner.
Later on Nancy and I saw together the headline about Bob Dole dead and she said "Wow! Both Dylan and Bob Dole dying on the same day. And who would have imagined back in the 60s that Dylan would live to be 98!"
Se we sorted out our confusion. Bob Dole never wrote any music of consequence and is indeed dead, and Bob Dylan is still very much with us at age 80.
This week I will be squarely back in the workshop turning away at a small batch of Folk Flutes and a few other flutes recently ordered. I am actually looking forward to making flutes that haven’t been promised for several months. To some degree I need to keep my flute making chops up and practiced. These honed skills will be necessary when I am working glass.
I must get this milling machine part out of the weather. Hopefully my friend Jaime is available this week. We are only expecting .13” of precipitation totally before Friday and the ground between our porch walkway and the workshop is firm, thanks to the gravel base put in when we dug our well. If he’s not available I will make a simple fulcrum using one of our construction ladders and a long 2X4 and simply lever it up the hill in tiny increments. If so I will be sure to timelapse this activity. One of my favorite books is the 1980 title by Jan Adkins Moving Heavy Things. One can get this still at Abebooks.com
Two important tasks to finish:
1) the Fundraising Letter. I’ll be asking everyone who ordered and received one of my $1100 and up flutes in the last decade or so to send a gift of $100 if they are willing and able, to help fund the tooling, machinery and supplies that I need to get this project up and running. As long as these gifts are labeled as “gift” these have no consequences as far as taxes are concerned. A few have already sent in their gifts. Contact me if you would like to contribute.
2) the Manufacturing Flow Chart. I am at the stage where I can map out every step of the manufacturing process for these flutes. Mapping this will guide my purchases. Three different paths will be used for making the glass: cold working from solid glass rod, blowing glass into a mold and lost wax casting. The bore and outside finishing steps including the ornamentation will be the same regardless of how the glass tube is generated. The same is true for tuning and voicing, after the metal fittings that join the tubing are appllied. The metal will be designed from the originals, fabricated or 3D printed into masters some 3% larger than the desired size. These will be molded up for casting in Sterling Silver at Alchemist Casting in Seattle, where I get my keywork cast. Tuning and voicing will be similar to the processes I use for wood, and will be done with diamond tooling, some of this custom made by National Diamond Laboratory in Los Angeles.
Prior to many of these steps will be the wrangling of glass flute data collected over the last 15 years. I hope eventually to make it back to the Library of Congress to measure Madison’s flute - and possibly others. With precise data on one well playing specimen, another one that was loaned to me for restoration, and other bits of data I actually have loads of data. The Pandemic will control when I can make it back to Washington DC to visit the Library.
Initially I am setting up for the modern optical working methods first. Glass will be bored using my current boring lathe, with some modifications (mostly to reduce its speed). Reaming will require making some cast iron tools that grind the bore to final profile using a carbide slurry. I am using Rid Cameron’s old reaming lathe for this task. The outside shape will be done on the Gorton P1-2 Pantograph Mill that I am still hauling across the yard. Outside fluting and faceting will require a Glass Engraving Lathe and tooling. I will be setting up a smaller desktop milling machine to drill and undercut tone holes and mounting holes for key bases. I plan to add some fly cutting capacity and other modifications to my Rose Engines for end cap inlays which I plan to make from California Abalone shell. We have piles of it from the years my mother-in-law lived in Mendocino California.
Who knows when it will really be safe to travel? I am skeptical that we will be done with this pandemic soon. The latest theory on Omicron is that the new mutations may have been picked up from the common cold versions of Coronavirus. These can be easy to catch and re-catch. The year before the Pandemic I caught a cold in November, again in January and then finally at Lark Camp in late July. I was sick all of August. I had the same symptoms all three times and the prevailing wisdom at the county health or state health departments were that these were from all the same Coronavirus. That fall, as I was recovering from my second knee replacement, I read about Covid-19’s emergence and thought “Uh oh!”
Delta is quite transmissible. The common cold’s greater transmissibility goes beyond droplets - think surfaces. Thus I recommending upping the use of hand sanitizers again, avoiding touching one’s face, etc. when out and about. On the other hand, the same mutations may serve to lessen the lethality of this virus, especially for the vaccinated. Eventually the next booster shots in late spring/early summer will address this new variant.
Unfortunately I think it hasn’t dawned on people that we may be headed for another spike. I popped in for a moment at a craft show in Poulsbo yesterday and it was elbow to elbow in some places. Fortunately most were masked. Alden reported that over 3000 people passed through that building during the day. It will be interesting to see if there is a corresponding surge in new cases in the county in a few weeks. There are Christmas Bazaars happening everywhere and people are tired of the Pandemic and throwing caution to the wind. I got out of that building as soon as possible and hope my recent booster kept me from catching anything.
NPR today published this article: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate
Misinformation spread by Trump and his followers, ultra-conservative evangelicals and anti-vax conspiracy theorists are to blame for the higher infection rates in counties that voted for Trump. However, these people will probably claim that NPR’s story is fake news. Someone last week already claimed that Omicron was simply a false story made up by the Democrats to justify Mail-in Voting which they claim is rife with voter fraud. Its funny that the only voter fraud being reported is usually done by Republicans who supported Trump. Meanwhile, the Republicans gerrymander with abandon in the background, and do all they can to take voting rights away from their opponents.
Thus when one of these blowhards succumbs to the virus, is it wrong to express or feel a bit of Schadenfreude? These people are leading others to their demise and prolonging this misery for everyone, while blaming it on imaginary conspiracies committed by those who still believe in Democracy. I say, good riddance to them. What did they expect?
If Heaven and Hell exist, I suspect their afterlife will turn out surprising. I hope there is a special level in Hell specifically for these people, and that the only musician present on that level will be Bob Dole.