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Someone once told me that woodworkers cannot talk to other woodworkers without using their hands to explain things. And that’s true.
But I’d like to amend that aphorism to say that woodworkers also like to talk with their pencils. I’ve even taken to carrying around a notebook with me in my back pocket (as a trained journalist I’m allowed to do this. I’m also allowed to wear a fedora with my press pass in it. And have a whiskey bottle in my desk. Yup, that’s journalism.)
So today is cover shoot day at Popular Woodworking. Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick and Senior Editor Glen D. Huey have designed and built a right nice chimney cupboard that is going to be the basis of an article on seven joints.
We begin the day by all of us almost getting fired.
Here’s how: We decided to spray a coat of finish on the piece this morning. And we don’t really have a spray booth anymore. And it’s too chilly outside. And so…¦. you can kind of guess the rest. Despite some decent ventilation (fans, double doors), our HVAC system sucks the fumes into the building.
After the vice president of human resources left the shop, Glen and Megan finished the assembly of the cabinet while Senior Editor Robert W. “Bob” Lang, Photographer Al Parrish and Art Director Linda Watts and I worked out the details of the staging. 
Oh, and one of our authors and a fellow blogger, David Mathias, is there for a visit. (Hello David. I promised we’d blog about you first. Neener.)
We can’t get the details of the cover right. So I whip out my handy-dandy notebook and sketch up the gem of a cover you see to the right. Then the artistic ones on the staff turned it into the nice shot you see above. We’re still tweaking it as I write. These things take time.
Bob was called in at one point to lug our artificial tree into the window (see this entry), but then we determined the tree wasn’t necessary for the February cover. So Bob had to retrieve the tree. That tree has been on more covers than I have.
And that’s our day up until lunch today. Time to hit the Halloween candy and see if there’s something hiding at the bottom of my desk drawer.
