I go by many names — Stormin’ Bob Swanson (The Singing Weatherman), StarMan Bob Swanson (The Singing Astronomer), and Bob the Builder. The last of these I picked up while living in Tupelo — a neighbor of mine, Peggy Hurley, would patrol the neighborhood in her pickup truck (sometimes walking her dog by holding the leash out the window), catch me in the act of some building or home-improvement project (the largest of these, Shed-zilla, survived the EF-3 tornado that rolled through the neighborhood in 2014), and the nickname stuck.
Now that we live in Starkville, I’ve been needing a shed so that was my big-ticket Christmas present this year. While the shed itself was a kit that I bought from Sam’s Club (and so construction was not as complex as the “stick-built” Shed-zilla), I still had to dig some ho-ho-holes (9 in fact) and build a foundation. As I mentioned in my last post, I spend much of my life in my office, lab or classroom (and then in the summers I get to see a lot of libraries) so a building project is always a nice change of pace. While I’m not a trained tradesman, I really do enjoy working with my hands. It also gives me a chance to pass along some skills to my boys (my eldest son helped me lug lumber from Lowe’s and even did some hammering in building the frame for the foundation).
I was also assisted by unseasonably warm weather. During much of Christmas break so far, high temperatures have been in the 70s, and that has made the digging and construction much more comfortable.
So whaddya think? Should Bob the Builder get into the construction biz or should I stick to writing and singing songs about science?
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