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260546 Charles Driggs <cdinde@v...> 2016‑11‑28 BIO update - Charlie Driggs
Well, the last bio has been re-visited, demanding a rewrite due to the passage
of time and life changes. December 2016 and Galootaclaus arrive this week.

  Q: What do you do at home when not in the shop, working on the house, chasing
needed items, deleting junk mail / reading email or working on volunteer
activities?

  A: I retired from the utility industry at the end of 2014, and somehow haven’t
been able to devote more than half my time to workshop activities since then,
despite good intentions.  A few people had suggested in advance that I would be
busier in retirement than I was when employed, which seemed impossible to
comprehend at the time.  Now, I see the point; it has happened with me.

      I am still buying tools when I need something or find something I expect I
will need, and on rare occasions when it is just too nice to leave it alone and
I know right where I can put it when I might need it.  What I have found is that
it is getting hard to find where I put some of them, or where to put more of
them.  I also think maybe some do have a personality, and enjoy hiding.  Don’t
seriously reorganize your shop and then think you will know where everything is
located.  I am certain there are more tools down there that are hiding on me.
Somewhere.

      While my wife stopped asking a couple of years ago when her new, larger &
nicer lingerie chest is going to be finished, I also learned not to mention
progress on it as it happens – the looks back aren’t happy yet, better to leave
sleeping dogs alone.  Three spine surgeries, a badly broken leg, knee surgeries,
ankle surgery, arm surgery, a mildly improving golf game, two nearby grandsons,
and some serious medical issues for wife have intervened since I started that
project in January 2006.  Oh, and then the mahogany cabinet sides permanently
warped from sitting too long waiting for everything to reach the final assembly
stage and a dehumidifier had ceased dehumidifying.  So I started over last year,
switched to cherry for the case, and progress has been intermittent but better.
The one good effect of the medical recovery downtime was that I had a lot of
time to find, order and read very good books on woodworking aspects I had not
mastered yet; the library quadrupled.  Not enough shelf space though, so in
agreeing to redecorate the family room with mostly new furniture last Spring I
had the opportunity to buy a couple of pieces of used period furniture I didn’t
have time to make to house the library.  Now half the woodworking library is an
arm-length away when I feel like sitting down for a while.  The objections from
the other side of the room were minimal.

     Nothing really seemed to change after retirement other than free time is
now more scarce than ever!

Q: What did you do when you were employed?

A:  I had a variety of jobs – started as a golf caddy when I was 13, pro-shop
attendant & golf cart maintenance guy, plastics plant production machinery setup
mechanic, tool & die maker’s (mold work) assistant, plant engineering department
intern, contract engineering laboratory project lead, design engineer for
industrial plant process cooling, plumbing, and energy systems, research project
engineer for advanced energy conversion concept studies, field engineer for air
emissions and energy efficiency assessments for industry; development engineer
for micro- and small-hydroelectric and mechanical and hydro energy storage plant
process studies for over a decade; project investigation leader for the US
Strategic Oil Storage program underground storage site search and some
underground engineering facility studies for military and foreign clients;
regional electric generation resource planning studies in several parts of the
US; project lead for assessments of energy efficiency in 18 communities in
Alaska; development of energy efficiency programs for displacement of new
generation needs for a utility client, then hired by the utility to take the
designs further into a formal plan; strategic assessment of distributed small
power generation for the utility, then reassignment as investment manager for
distributed generation projects and combined / ‘co-generation’ projects coupled
with sawmill operations in Northern California until Spotted Owl became an issue
that decimated the Pacific Northwest sawmill industry; operations, planning &
regulatory management for a natural gas utility business; implementation manager
for energy efficiency and residential & commercial load management programs in
four states for the parent utility company, lead manager for cybersecurity
hardening of load management program control systems, and a decade of experience
as a planner and response team leader for crisis management – severe storms,
natural disasters, explosions, etc.

      In my spare time, I initially kept tearing cars apart as needed, sometimes
driving them in competition, and volunteering as a race worker at Watkins Glen
race track.  Soon after we were married, I became a father of three, still found
enough time for a while to play golf and dabbled in playing squash for a couple
of years, tapered off car work to take up woodworking, and that became more
serious with transitions into furniture making and repair & restoration of
antique furniture -- and the transitions served to keep my wife fairly happy.  I
still play a little golf through most of the year, but I put less time on that
than what I work on at home.  Keeping up with dozens of trees in the yard
involves taking down tree limbs and chipping what isn’t useful for woodworking.
We managed to celebrate our 45th anniversary this year.  Managing through life
is just as much of a job as working for an income, but staying busy in many of
life’s activities that are important but unrelated to making an income helps
keep me happy.

Q. Where do you call home?

A:  Northern Delaware (can you find that on a map in five seconds?) &

    southeast Pennsylvania. Same territory frequented or occupied by

    Steve Reynolds, Tom Price, Ed Minch, Bill Ghio, and Bill Webber, among
others.  These guys used to be formidable competition in any attempts to find
'gloats' around here in yard sales or any such similar endeavor.  Over the last
decade the world changed and most good tools are now sold online or in auctions
and tool meets, but the Galoots in this area have saved a lot of old tools from
unspeakable fates.  My wife and I were originally from western NY state, but we
have lived most of our lives in Delaware at this point.

 Q: OK, do you actually produce anything or just putz around in the workshop?

A:  LOML has stopped asking that question as she knows the answer after 45
years, but there's a little more edge to her version unless the object of my
efforts is related to the long list of items she’s hoping I will make, do or
finish. She used to think I leaned more towards accumulating and now I am pretty
sure she knows I lean more towards producing.  I do spend too much of my time on
the keyboard and out shopping for necessities now that she no longer can drive,
but that can’t be helped.

Q: Projects?

A: Yes, many of them. 

Q: Completed Projects?

A:  OK, not so many of those.  The grandsons are definitely a project awaiting
completion.  There are seven pieces of furniture waiting for restoration or
construction to be started or completed, including three for a relative and
another person I have done work for in the last two decades.  One of my most
favorite projects ever was restoring the tiger maple drop-leaf side table in our
dining room.  It was built about 225 years ago by my direct ancestor, stayed in
the family ever since, and had fallen into serious disrepair by 1990.  I learned
a lot about restoration & conservation during that project.

 Q: Preferred Projects?

A:  Queen Anne or Federal Period are my favorite styles.  Queen Anne requires
learning more carving skills, something that Jim Thompson (RIP) encouraged me to
work on and Jim gave me a bunch of gouges to use doing it.  I’ve greatly
expanded the carving tool inventory since, and taken some courses.  I like it,
it just requires devoting chunks of scarce time to really develop the skills and
produce something satisfying.  I did my first Newport-style shell carving under
Mary May’s watchful eyes.  It hangs in the hallway of our house now, and I’d
like to put more carved work on the walls or into our furniture.  My involvement
with SAPFM pushes me towards that direction, and I do hope I free up some time
to pursue period furniture work further.

 Q: How did you get interested in tools and woodworking?

A: I figure the woodworking interest is probably inherited, as one of my
grandfathers wanted to be a cabinetmaker but wasn't permitted by his father --
who needed the son to take over the farm business to keep revenue coming in for
the family, as there was no retirement program in operating a farm.  Even then,
my grandfather snuck some projects in anyway. However, my uncle / his younger
son inherited some of it as he rebuilt and re-caned chairs as his hobby.  Mom
inherited an appreciation of classical furniture, partly because there were
several truly nice pieces over two centuries old in the care of the immediate
family.  A great-great-grandfather on Dad's side was a master builder of timber-
frame churches and his son made wooden wagon wheels for fire carts and early
trucks built by the predecessor company of General Electric (yep, that GE.  My
younger brother built, renovated, or repaired houses for decades, and just
retired too.  Other relatives were in the shipbuilding / shipwright business for
the whaling trade – if you go to Mystic Seaport, you'll see a distant uncle's
name on the preserved shipwright (blacksmith) shop.

      SWMBO & I both enjoyed antiquing when we had the time and good health .. I
gravitated towards WW tools and 18th century style furniture and she looked at
silver, china & 18th-early 20th century furniture, particularly pieces with a
Shaker influence or which I can fix up for the kids or grandkids.  I don’t need
very many tools any more, and those that I look for meet special needs that
usually arise in projects or learning new skills.

     I haven't been particularly chatty over the past few years, but thanks for
letting me sit in on the conversations, and maybe toss in a word or two here and
there. It's been very enjoyable so far, and the Porch community offers so much
great experience, knowledge, and information to those who participate. Very good
company, indeed, and I am so glad I went looking for the founders of this group
after they bailed out of the socially toxic environment that the RecWoodworking
talk group had become nearly two decades ago.  Two decades of observing
niceties, avoiding politics, and staying on topic have been rewarding and
produced some good friendships.

     Charlie Driggs Newark, DE

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