I Saw

No lumber associate was available at the big box home improvement store, so, after waiting for 10 minutes, I decided to use my circular saw and cut the boards for my raised garden beds myself. It was getting late in the day when Treat and I dropped off our soil and other purchases at the garden, so we left all the boards there. 

After I dug around in the attic and retrieved my saw from at least a decade of storage, Heidi and I headed up to the garden this morning to fetch the two planks that needed cutting. Back at home, I scoured the house for an extension cord to reach out to the front stoop, returning at last to the attic where I borrowed one from the Christmas lights bin. 

At last ready to measure twice and cut once, my pencil broke. When I finally pulled the trigger on the saw and ran it smoothly across the board, I realized that after a ten year hiatus from sawing, I had forgotten to adjust the blade depth, and so I had made a channel rather than a cut. I twisted the nut to make the adjustment, but then the plank kicked because the blade was too deep. I marked off the remaining two cuts I had to make, and did my best, which was still kind of sloppy, but definitely serviceable for garden beds. 

After running the saw for a grand total of 16 inches, I unplugged it and carried it back to the attic. Then I loaded the wood into the back of the station wagon, still a little chapped about the lack of a lumber associate situation.