The past few weeks have been nothing but work on the weekdays and traveling to visit family on the weekends. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all, and wouldn’t trade the visits for anything, but I hadn’t realized just how much I enjoyed and looked forward to my time on the lathe every weekend.

There’s just something that clicks with me when I’m making something on the lathe. Some of it is making something raw and chaotic and cutting it down to a smooth spinning round item. Then there’s the “oddly satisfying” bit of just watching the tool cut piece by piece to form whatever shape I’m making. Most of all though, I think it’s about making something new from start to finish.

At work I’m a software engineer. Sure, I create things, but I do it with data and code. The end results can be cool from a technical level, but at the end of the day it’s still just a bunch of text files. The wood lathe brings out the artistic side of me, and I have a finished product that anyone can enjoy. Some days I can even get multiple items completed in a few hours, which just adds to the fun of it all.

Sure, at the end of the day (more like just three hours) I was exhausted and worn out from both the wood turning as well as the general Texas summer heat index (the usual greater than 100°F / 38°C). That was OK though, I was mentally clear and relaxed! I sleep better that night, and woke up much more refreshed. I’m sure some of the was just heat related, but I’m going to tell myself it was the wood turning just to make myself feel better.