Withdrawal Syndrome

Definition

Withdrawal syndrome occurs in drug and alcohol addicted individuals who discontinue or reduce the use of their drug of choice. This process of eliminating drugs and alcohol from the body is known as detoxification. Anxiety, insomnia, nausea, perspiration, body aches, and tremors are just a few of the physical and psychological symptoms of drug and alcohol withdrawal that may occur during detoxification.

This rings so true with me right now.  Although, my drug of choice is sawdust, of course.

I could be wrong, but I think the last time I spend any meaningful time in my shop was October 4th 2012.  I know, I know, that wasn't all that long ago you say.  But for me, it feels like ages.  I think that is because my shop is my drug of choice and I am definitely going through some sort of withdrawal.  I am itching to get back in there so bad....patience....patience.

But this down time has given me some gems too.  In the time since last I was in m shop, I got to go to San Francisco for work for about 9 days.  I enjoyed my time out there, but I also appreciate my life here in the mid-west a little more.  I have it a lot better out here than I ever knew.  I got to visit a neat little furniture gallery while I was out there and spent quite a while talking to the owner about all the pieces that interested me.  Neat stuff.  WIA Pasadena was going on during the weekend I was in SF.  You cannot understand how hard I fought the urge to just drive down there for the weekend.  Really.  I wanted to so bad.  But I didn't want to leave my co-worker without transportation all weekend, so I just stayed.  But I was already registered and booked for the WIA Mid-West so, I was OK with it.

Right after I returned home from SF, we got to spend several good days visiting with my wife's parents.  It is always good to see them and even better when they come to me (they reside in PA).  

The in-laws went home and shortly after was WIA Mid-West!  I was so stoked!  Was I disappointed?  Hell to the no!  This was my second year at WIA and by far the best!   I hung out with so many great people, all woodworkers of course.  From hobbyists like me, to bloggers, tv celebs, authors, publishers, tool makers and more.  I have said this before:  Even if I was not a woodworker, I can't think of a better group of people to just sit and have a beer with.  Woodworkers near and far from all walks of life are just generally awesome people.  I had such a good time just hanging out meeting and talking with new people.  Mostly we spoke about woodworking, but not always.  It didn't hurt either that it was my birthday that weekend.  All around just one of the best weekends of my life.

The following couple weeks just plain sucked.  Really.  Hate to be negative, but it wasn't any fun.  This was when I was looking to get back into the shop.  It didn't happen at all.  Mostly, it was because of this huge project at work that I was working on.  I had to do about a months worth of work in a little over a week.  Not fun.  And to top it off, I had a minor medical issue with my foot that kept me from standing, let alone woodworking.

Anywho, jump forward to today.  The project at work is mostly done.  My foot is doing much better.  Now it is time to get into the shop.  This week is thanksgiving week and I have the entire week off to my leisure.  Time to get cracking!  Hopefully my next post will be with some damn pictures of new work!