Sabbatical–Day 20–More Interviews

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today I’m losing most of another day away from my flagpole. Next week, I keep telling myself.

I had the second round of high school principal interviews first. We had voted on two candidates last time and they were both coming back today for more questions and a scenario. I got the schedule last night and it was interesting. Since a principal is a leader, the scenario has the candidate leading the committee through a process. It’s an interesting technique, perhaps one that can be used in my other work somehow.

I also think I semi-volunteered for more work. I talked with the superintendent a bit, saying that one of the issues I think lots of parents have is that we don’t understand the process and cost of education. One of the teachers had mentioned they needed lots of prep time for class, and I asked him why they needed the prep they said after they’d taught the class a few times. He asked if I might help figure out how to better educate and inform parents.

Not sure what I’ll be involved in, but I’m guessing I’ll be on the hook for something.

Half my day gone, Pilates in the afternoon and then class. Not quite what I was hoping for. I packed up and left for Goodwill, dropping off some clothes and then Pilates.I was late, having assumed the time and not looked at the reminder I’d set. However still a workout before fighting traffic for class.

Tenons

Tonight was the start of us cutting tenons by hand, We started with a lecture, watching the instructor cut, trim, and shape a tenon by hand. It didn’t look hard, and I even took notes. In fact, I spent the first 10 minutes of class writing down some of the things we’ve learned, trying to be sure I’ll remember them in the future.

I marked and went to cut my first tenon, badly twisting the saw and cutting at an angle. I wrecked both sides of the first tenon before getting a few hints from the instructor and starting on the other side of my board.

I got better, working slowly on this one, and finally getting it cut before starting on the other side.

I wasn’t trying to be too exact, cutting close and then snapping off the sides, knowing we’d use a router plane to clean up the tenon.

I was one of the slower ones to get mine cut, but once it was done, it was acceptable right away by the instructor. Even though it didn’t look great, it fit nicely.

Then I had to start cutting another one. I didn’t finish, but I did learn a bit of a new skill.