u/SamBetterSucks

I got this lovely 31+ day desk organizer from my local thrift store for $3. My wife was unimpressed, so I’m sharing it where it might be appreciated.

Like most people, I started reading Vonnegut in high school. This was back in the late 90s when Kurt was still alive, but in a period when his popularity was waning. His paperbacks were at every thrift store and garage sale and used bookstore. You could get them for pennies. I bought every one I found. Some I passed along to friends, but most I kept. Along the way I found some real gems, a few rarities, and a number of oddities.

Though he spoke loudly to me in my youth, he whispers to me now and his whispers are so much truer than the shouts.

I bought this piece at a thrift store today for $18. I’m not entirely sure what it is. My best guess is a side table. It has what appears to be a magazine rack built into one side which makes all the sense in the world, but the drawers open from both ends, each with a removable divider, which are two very odd details for a side table. It’s also quite short, less than two feet tall. It doesn’t even reach my knee and I am a very short individual.

The piece is from a company called British Oak Jamestown Lounge Co., but there are no other identifying marks on the piece such as model numbers or dates. The caning is pretty beat up and I had to glue one of the leg braces back in place but, other than the typical wear and tear one would expect from a thrifted piece, it was in excellent condition. It’s clear to me that it was well taken care of, so the previous owner must have thought it was worth the effort to maintain (other than the broken caning, but I totally understand).

Any thoughts? Am I right? Is it just a weirdly-detailed side table? Or was it designed to serve a more specific purpose?

Prototype. Super simple to make. Clean lines, nothing gets hung up, dice don’t exit chaotically, and there’s a satisfying noise when the dice bonk their way through. I’ll be making more and streamlining the process.

When I was eleven years old, my father left our family. He emptied the accounts, told my mom she could have the house and the kids, and took off. This was way back in 1989 and my mom had no work experience to rely on. We didn’t know what to do. Things looked pretty hopeless, but Mom eventually got a job as a night custodian, sold the house, moved my siblings and I to a nearby town, and we started over.

The house we moved to was about a hundred years old. It creaked. It leaned. The front door didn’t open. The side door didn’t latch. There were bats and mice and leaks and electrical problems. The basement flooded and the windows rattled with every breeze. Hot in the summer, frigid in the winter, but it was ours. Mom broke her back over and over to pay for it and Dad had no claim to it. We had a roof over our heads and, though it leaked, it was our roof and no one could take it from us.

About twenty years ago, my mom finally got new windows and I took several of the old ones thinking that I would use them for…something? I never did.

Every time my wife and I moved, the windows went with us and I kept making excuses for keeping them, but I knew I would never do anything with them. They were always in the way and I worried about them breaking, but I couldn’t bring myself to let them go.

I recently learned that people diagnosed with ADHD frequently store memories in objects, causing them to hoard things. I realized that I’ve been storing memories in these old windows. But these memories weren’t really doing me much good. They weren’t memories of my mom working hard to provide for us as much as they were memories of my dad abandoning us. They were memories that I needed to let go.

A few days ago I decided it was time. I removed the glass from the frames, cut the wood into strips (letting go is therapeutic, but I still need scrap wood), and decided to make a simple rolling tray. I used only parts from the windows.

That house was about taking a chance and ignoring the odds and doing our best in spite of the consequences of failure. A rolling tray seemed appropriate.

All three of my novellas are free downloads on most platforms (links are in my bio). These stories coexist in a junk-drawer world called Limbo where humans and elves and zombies and robots and cryptids and gods all live together with a shrug and a WTF attitude. They have a good blend of humor and violence and social commentary. Check them out and let me know what you think. I could definitely use some Goodreads reviews.
(NOTE: These make excellent pallet-cleanser reads between the bigger Stephen Kings and Brandon Sandersons and Matt Dinnimans.)

I made these wands several years ago and they are displayed proudly in our house. All of my wands are lathe-turned. I possess neither the skill nor the patience for hand-carved wands, though I am greatly intimidated by those wandsmiths who do.

I’ve had this random artwork for about thirty years. At some point I wrote, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” on it. It’s traveled with me through five moves and is currently hanging in my basement. Now, every time I see it I think, “Hello, Crawlers!”

I made this dice tower today and I’m very proud of it. It’s made from reclaimed material and I love it so very much.

…but I made this wand stand instead.

Well, “made” might be a generous term. More accurately, I drilled a couple of holes in a chunk of firewood and slapped a base on it. Still, I think it looks very pretty.

I’ve been turning wands for about ten years but I just started getting involved on Reddit and I really love how some communities are so very supportive of people enjoying hobbies regardless of skill level. (*some* communities)

That being said, here are some wands I turned recently.

Keep doing fun things, you guys!

These are all dice storage/rolling trays. I’ve never used one for more than three sessions before having an idea for an upgrade and rushing into the garage to build it.

My current flavor-of-the-month (center) has a dice tower built into the lid. It’s very satisfying to open and close as it’s such a perfect fit.

Some of these are works-in-progress, but my ADHD guarantees that they’ll never get finished. Most of them started out as silverware cases, toolboxes, cigar boxes, game boxes, etc., but they (like everything else) ended up being sacrificed to the campaign.

Just published this yesterday. It’s free on iTunes and Smashwords. Should appear on Barnes & Noble shortly.

Georgia and her sister, Mo, live on a mobile colony that is slowly circumnavigating the planet Ash. Ever since their father died, survival has been a constant struggle made worse by Georgia's persistent bad attitude and her refusal to play nice with those who mistreat her. When a too-good-to-be-true opportunity arises, Georgia doesn't ask any questions. Her responsibilities are few, the pay is outstanding, and the company is pleasant.

Should she have asked questions? Is there some darker aspect to the job that she's just not seeing? The deeper Georgia digs into the details of her new occupation, the more suspicious she becomes of everything: the job, her charge, the colony in general...

In the end, her priority is to take care of her sister, but in order to do that, she'll need to make some very difficult decisions.
*****
(Dandelion is a free download on iTunes and Barnes & Noble.)

Ruckus is a story about a young vampire named Dylan who is not having the best time being undead. He lives on the streets and spends all of his time hiding from the sun and trying to ignore his growing hunger.

Dylan and his friend, Wiggins, decide to sign up for the fights at the Rookery, a popular gambling den where they’ll either get a hot meal or a quick death. Dylan finds both options equally appealing.

At the Rookery they meet several other individuals who are just as desperate as they are. Some are friendly, others are rude, all of them will try to kill each other of they meet in the ring. Those who survive could walk away with enough money to start a new life.
******
(Ruckus is a free download on iTunes and Barnes & Noble.)