torin3 and I were out in his Shop of Amazing Tools, doing fun metal things with the Macheens including grinding off what are affectionately called "birdshit" welds from some jobs that were supposed to be finished eons ago. Let's make a note in my permanent file that I am no longer allowed to weld, for I Suck At It. Now I make torin3 do all the welding, since he apparently possesses the totality of the welding juju between us, and I can live with that. His mileage may vary, but I don't actually know, because I pretend I can't hear him.In the meantime, of course, there remains the Grinding of the Welds of Humiliation. Between the teeth-shattering whine (it's special!) of the die grinder, the turn-your-bones-to-jello rattle of the belt grinder, and the air compressor that's bigger than my last car, there's enough noise in that shop to wake up Helen Keller. We wear ear protection, of course (I've rigged mine to play Depeche Mode -- amazing what you can learn from snow boarders) and use sign language. However, we can't use normal ASL sign language, because we're also rigged up in respiratory gear and welding gloves. It's the equivalent of talking with your mouth full, LOL.
So we've kinda come up with some impromptu combination of Navy Seal sign language + dorks dressed like insects in welding gloves = Circus Seals who grind and weld but look like the Space Ants who've come to conquer your planet. Don't worry, we come in peace. But at least we understand each other. And we're easily distracted by shiny objects and power tools...
So here's the thing. We're working on this horrid piece of crap weld from one of my two Cursed Coronet Projects (I have two which will not let me finish and deliver them. I hate them. They're fucking possessed. I'm not sure what will happen if and when I do conquer either of these goddamn jobs -- will world peace break out? Armageddon? I DO NOT KNOW. I MAY NEVER KNOW). And there is so much crap dirt being thrown from the sander onto the piece neither of us can see if we're making any progress on the thing.
So I, in my Space Ant suit and respirator, blow on it.
I've discovered now that's it's possible to make a surprisingly large range of recognizable facial expressions while completely covered in safety equipment.
This -- o_O -- for example.
torin3 reached over and used the air compressor hose to effectively blow the dirt off the piece. And his face mask didn't have snot on it as a result, either.Yeah.
