My Little Project and a Lesson from Fenway
Okay, so the other day, I was working on fixing up this old wooden chair I found. Looked like it had potential, you know? Solid bones. But man, it was putting up a fight. One leg was wobbly, the finish was peeling off in chunks, and a piece of the backrest had just snapped clean off.
I started working on it pretty optimistic. Got out my sandpaper, wood glue, clamps, the whole nine yards. Stripped off the old varnish first. That part went okay, just messy. Then I tried gluing that backrest piece. Clamped it up, left it overnight. Next morning? It popped right off again when I barely touched it. Tried a different glue. Same thing. The wobble in the leg? Couldn’t figure out how to tighten it without splitting the wood.
I was getting seriously frustrated. Ready to just toss the whole thing onto the curb. Stood there in my garage, covered in sawdust, just staring at this stubborn piece of junk. Felt like I’d wasted a whole weekend on it.
Then, for some reason, I started thinking about the Red Sox. Yeah, seriously. I remembered watching some of those games, especially the tough ones, the extra-inning grinders, the ones where they’re down by a few runs late in the game. You just see it in how they play sometimes. They don’t fold. They gotta dig deep, right? That whole ‘cowboy up’ thing they talked about years ago, that gritty, don’t-quit attitude.
It kinda clicked. This chair wasn’t gonna fix itself, and getting mad wasn’t helping. Time to just suck it up and figure it out. Like the Sox trying to claw back a run in the 9th.
- So, first thing I did was take a break. Made some coffee. Cleared my head.
- Then I went back and looked closer at that broken backrest. Realized the break wasn’t clean, needed more careful sanding on both ends to get a better surface for the glue.
- I got out some stronger wood epoxy this time, not just regular glue. Mixed it up real careful.
- Applied it, clamped it again, but used more clamps this time, making sure the pressure was even. Left it for a full 24 hours, no peeking.
- For the wobbly leg, I did some searching online. Found a trick using small wood shims and some wood filler combined with glue. Carefully tapped tiny shims into the loose joint, filled the gaps, let it set.
It wasn’t fast, and it wasn’t easy. Had to redo the shims on the leg once because I rushed it. But I kept thinking, just gotta keep grinding, like waiting for that clutch hit. Eventually, the epoxy held on the backrest. Solid as a rock this time. And the leg? Stable. No wobble.
Finished sanding the whole thing down smooth and put on a nice coat of stain. Looks pretty good now, actually. It’s just a chair, I know. But tackling it felt like a small win, inspired by remembering how those guys in the Red Sox uniforms sometimes have to just cowboy up and get the job done, even when it’s looking bleak.