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glassware rack
Sunday, March 26 2017
I'd had sleep issues a little before 6:00am and so had taken an Ambien and drunk a little Christmas absinthe to help fall asleep again, though I'd managed to stay at my computer without feeling sleepy until after 7:00am and light had filled the sky.
Gretchen (who would be returning from the crossword showdown this afternoon) had told me that the crazy cat people who might be allowing us to adopt a cat named Charlie would be coming this evening to check out our situation and maybe drop Charlie off. With that in mind, I thought it would be best to make further progress at making the laboratory look less like the residence of a hoarder. This involved throwing more stuff away that it's clear I will never find a use for. But it also meant coming up with new storage solutions for things that presently occupy too much of the precious surface where they temporarily reside. In particular, I wanted a better way to store the glassware that Ray has given me over the years. So today I put a surprising amount of time into the project of making a small glassware rack to attach to the laboratory ceiling near the hot water pot (about eight feet from the southwest corner). The plan was to attach a small plank to little wooden triangles that would angle it out level from the ceiling and then cut slots into that plank allowing glassware to be hung vertically, right-side up. Chemistry glassware lacks the flare bases of, say, glass stemware, though the mouths (tops) are usually slightly flared, and I hoped to capitalize on this to keep the glassware from sliding through the slots. To get the slots to be the correct size, I used calipers to measure the width of each piece of glassware I hoped to hold, and then use the next-largest hole saw blade in my comprehensive hole saw kit to cut an appropriate hole, which I then turned into a slot by cutting out the wood to the nearest side. I quickly discovered, though, that the next-largest hole in my hole saw collection was so big that the slot couldn't hold my largest piece of glassware; it wanted to slide right through. So I had to customize most of the slots using smaller hole saws that I then enlarged with a Dremel. I also used the Dremel to create a little depressing around the end of each slot for the flare to sink into, thereby requiring the glassware to be lifted before being removed from the rack.
At some point this evening, one of the crazy cat ladies called and said they couldn't do the Charlie the Cat dropoff this evening after all and it would have to be rescheduled for next week. It was just as well; I'd made little progress decluttering the laboratory.
Meanwhile, the crampy discomfort in my lower abdomen that may or may not be related to my left testicle has returned, just in time for me to discuss it with the doctor I'll be seeing on Wednesday (my first medical checkup since I was a teenager). This contributed to a general malaise that had me climbing into bed before 10:00pm. I'd been out of bed less than ten hours today.
The glassware rack I built today, complete with all the glassware Ray has given me.
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