Tomorrow, I am off to visit the guys and gals that put on Woodworking in America, and I am totally excited. Not just because it’s a great place to visit with friends (and dance on the tables of German-themed drinking establishments), or that there are awesome classes taught by talented woodworkers or that the marketplace is full of drool-inducing tools.

No, it’s because something about being in that environment ignites a spark in me.

Last year, as I was getting ready to head up to Covington, Kentucky, I was totally stoked. I had worked with the rest of the gang at the Modern Woodworkers Association planning a meet up. I had been in touch with the folks at Wood Talk Online about setting up a big get together. I was drafted into helping Roy Underhill run his audio-visual presentation (i.e. hauling a huge log around a conference room while he chopped at it with an axe).

But, I was totally blindsided by what was about to happen. You know, when you get a new woodworking book or magazine, you might bookmark a page about a particular project you might want to build. There is a totally different feeling, however, of looking at an example of something you want to build in person. That’s the feeling that overcame me when I saw Mike Siemsen’s Nicholson woodworking  bench in person. That’s the feeling that also overcame me when I saw Chris Schwarz’s Dutch tool chest in person.

Being in the room with these pieces, touching them, looking at them from different angles… it fired the right synapses and really brought it home for me.

So much so, in fact, that within a few weeks of getting back to the shop, I had started on my iteration of the Dutch tool chest, and, by the first week of December, I had my new Nicholson bench in place, ready to work. It was a veritable building boom!

I’m not making any promises this year that I will tackle the world, but the progress I have already made on the table in my shop this past weekend was definitely encouraged by the fact that I was going to be back in that environment.

It was Stephen Covey who wrote in the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that one of the important steps was to ‘sharpen the saw.’  In many ways this is exactly what the annual pilgrimage to be among my peers is for me…a chance to take a new look at my craft and recapture the excitement…

Here in the United States, today is Labor Day. Most of us are relaxing, enjoying barbecues and contemplating the end of the summer and the beginning of the – gasp – blizzard season.

But, that doesn’t mean that everyone is off. I mean, police, fire and emergency medical types are on the job today. Reporters, videographers and news producers are on the job. And, as we all know, even superheroes are on the job.

Do you really think that if the bat signal is given that Batman would neglect the call?  That Spiderman would let Doc Oc run amok while he sat at the beach? That Wonder Woman wouldn’t spring into action if Cheetah was out causing issues?

Well, here in Florida, another superhero is hard at work… Handyman!

Fighter of grime.  Tamer of wild lawns and landscaping. Fixer of broken items. Yes, there’s nothing this brave mutant wouldn’t do around the house given enough time off from his day job.

Why, recently, his arch-nemesis, Old Cheap Dining Room Chair came to visit, splitting along a poorly constructed glue joint.

Just look at that!  A potential posterior pincher if there ever was one. This had the potential to endanger all of the residents of Chez Iovino.

Fortunately, the call went out to Handyman, and, faster than paint can dry, he was on the scene with his necessary equipment. Just as important as the Lariat of Truth or the Batarang, Handyman reached into his bag of tricks to find the Gorilla Glue of strength and the Bessey Clamps of power!

Pow! Bang!  Ooof!  Before Cheap Chair knew what hit him, Handyman had squeezed a bead of glue into the split and spread it with a shim, evenly coating both sides of the seat. Knowing that the end was near, Cheap Chair tried to spit out all of the glue that Handyman used, but to no avail.

Once the Clamps of Power were applied, it was all over but the crying. Cheap Chair caved under the pressure, and the split was fixed, promising pinch-free sitting for years to come.

While citizens were able to see Handyman in action, he disappeared shortly afterward, unavailable for comment. Funny, that’s when my family found me, asleep on the couch… I had missed the whole thing…

But, I know, somewhere out there, Handyman waits for the next call, tools at the ready, when trouble rears its ugly head.