The Urn: Part 16 Oh man, so close I can taste it. After carving out the hand a bit I went a woodworking shop and asked them to slice a quarter inch off of the bottom for reasons i'll explain presently. The wood shop guy didn't have the right saw for it and was a bit shy to touch the project. When I asked him if he knew where I could go he got a thoughtful look and said something similar to: "well, there's this one guy...he's kind of... Well, he really knows what he's doing and he works out of an old church about three blocks down Fir street." "Cool" I said, "Second street?" "No, Fir. Like the tree." "Ah! Thanks!" I said, feeling slightly silly. "One more thing", I asked, "do you have a bandaid?" I had stabbed myself pretty badly just before I left and discovered that bachelors rarely have band-aids. "Oh yeah!" He said, and retrieved one. Bleeding stopped, I went along my way. Driving Walter's tattered silver stick shift down fir street like a badass with a band-aid, I see a church. It looked old enough to be old, and was three blocks from the wood working shop so I parked next to the Hobby Habit and crossed the street. The church was locked, but there was a likely looking store next to it, which claimed to be a computer store but looked more like some kind of thrifty mo-tor-cycull and com-poo-ter store, if you know what I mean. The guy behind the counter was wearing a one piece khaki jumpsuit and looked to be about sixty-five. He sounded exactly like a young person trying to do an old person voice. "Can I help you's with anything?" He asked kindly. Then he saw my project and his eyes bulged a bit. "Did you make thish?" "Working on it. Are you a guy who does woodwork out of a church?" I ask, feeling skeptical. He went and checked out his tools, which were woefully unprepared for the job. "No, not me..." He trailed off, thinking. "Well, there'sh thish one guy who... Well, he'sh kind of... Well, all i'll shay is he'sh really exshellent at what he doesh... Worksh out of an old church about three blocksh down." I thanked him and decided that people in this town never learned to count. Three blocks later, I found it. It looked like an ancient church with wood projects bulging out of everywhere. I knew it was the right one immediately. There was a truck in the driveway. I parked and walked up to the door and went into the building. The first thing I noticed was the sound of sawing, followed immediately by the realization that there was nearly zero walking space. Some relaxed looking dude with a ponytail and giant headphones is sawing a board. I say "hello?!" The dude turns off his saw and comes over. "What can I for you?" He's all business like. I explain. His eyes don't bulge and I know the project is in good hands. He just says "cool", and starts changing out the blade on the table saw. "Wait, before you get too far into that, what do I owe you?" He stops for a minute as if the thought never crossed his mind and says "how about five bucks?" "Cool," i say, "mind if I go get it and come back?" "No problem." He says, and is already back to work. I trust this guy implicitly. Anyway, after that whole bit I went and saw "The Revenant" with my family. "Leo really acted the shit out of that movie." Said my brother, summing it up perfectly. The next day I cut off the edges and squared up the base. And just now, I finally poked through the block. The reason I had to slice a slab off the bottom is to make it possible to bowl out the urn from underneath. That way, i can make it large enough to carry all the ashes but keep the feeling that they are held by the hands. Once i'm finished, i'll glue the bottom back on and prefect the edge. Ideally, you won't be able to tell anything happened.
