So I Didn’t Make it to WIA….Again

I’m cursed what can I say.  Two years ago I had to cancel my plans for the inaugural Woodworking In America conference because my wife became very ill and was admitted to the hospital.  I managed to make it to both events in 2009, and was registered for 2010 as well.  Thursday morning dawned and I was supposed to hit the road to Cincinnati shortly after dropping off Alex at doggie camp.  The problem was that Thursday morning dawned to no power, a flooding basement, and a very sick dog.  Once I determined that the house wouldn’t float away, it was off to the vet to discover that Alex had an intestinal blockage and we needed to get it removed.

I’ll cut to the chase and say that Alex is now fine, he is back home and on the mend.  The basement is now dry and after a lot of work, somewhat clean.  Anybody who has ever paid (and I do mean paid) a visit to their vet for anything other than a check up knows that the bills can pile up very quickly.  Needless to say, my WIA traveling money was long exhausted so the conference was off even if I could get away.  Don’t get me wrong, I have never hesitated to spend on my dog’s health so I can say that it was money well spent.  Besides, how can you not want to help out this face.

So all I can assume is that there is some kind of every other year curse in my family against WIA.  The good news is that I should be clear to go in 2011.  2012 doesn’t look too good, but then again those crazy Mayans have already predicted that will be a bad year anyway.

The good news to all of this is once the initial disasters were attended to, I got to spend some quality time in the shop finishing up a two drawer hall table and doing a lot of filming of content for the Hand Tool School.  There is something about shop time that is unexpected that tastes so sweet!

So sorry I missed you all who made it to WIA this weekend, it sounds like a lot of fun was had by all.  I think I can also feel safe in knowing that my fellow podcasters and bloggers who did attend made sure to keep alive the proud tradition of being a thorn in the side of all of the presenters and organizers by heckling and disrupting class whenever possible.  Nice work gang, and see you all next year!

***Update: the intestinal blockage was caused by poly-fil from one of Alex’s toys.  Much like the one pictured above.  If you give your dog these toys make sure they are not pulling out the stuffing, or better yet avoid them all together.  There are some great toys on the market that avoid stuffing all together and you can bet this is what we will have in our house from now on***