Growing up in the house of a carpenter and across the street from a grandparent who was also a carpenter, it was an everyday occurrence to experience a construction project in process. When I was little, I loved using Dad’s red hand drill so that I could work right along; turning the handle, moving the bit through my very own piece of wood until the concrete garage floor stopped my progress. Then I would begin drilling again. Years later I learned that, in those days before power hand tools, Dad used that same hand drill but that the bit was mine alone as it was too dull from my rough work for his finer details.

While questions were always welcome in the workshop, I learned early on that interruptions were better once the power tool wound down or in between the swings of a hammer. And, it was best to wait until the wood was carefully aligned and the clamps were in place when a “glue job” was in progress.

My most recent “glue job” did not involve finely planed wood with a smear of Elmer’s Carpenter’s Wood Glue but, rather Dermabond – “a cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive that forms a strong bond across apposed wound edges, allowing normal healing to occur below.”. I am still not sure just how it happened that my eyebrow kissed the sidewalk but I can attest that (just as when we were kids) the concrete won when face and concrete collided. The result of a healthy morning outing with Richard in his electric chair and me clumsy footed, was a trip to the emergency department and three layers of light purple glue sealing my laceration.

Ouch!