Half of the basement below the living room below the secret room was the Rec(kt) room and the other half was the shop. The shop was a wonderland of benches, bins, tools and dust. There was a table saw, a metal lathe, all kinds of mislabeled drawers and a general clutter that brings forth the inner creativity in the fertile mind. It was here that lamps, motors, pinewood derby cars, furniture and great inventions were made. My father often was found muttering and singing to himself here while engaging his passion for making practical things.

The wind tunnel was a science fair project of mine that we built together. It didn’t create any breakthroughs in science but was nicely made and won an honorable mention in the science fair. My previous year entry was a study of worms in different types of soil. Although this was fascinating to some it didn’t receive any award and I thought this was because of a bias on the part of the judges towards projects that squirmed and smelled bad.

My brother got into model rockets around that time with a friend of his and allowed me to accompany them to some launches. This was where kids would set a model rocket on a stand, attach some wires, count backwards and watch the rocket either explode, zoom around in circles before exploding or fly upwards to the heavens where it might release a parachute or just collapse down to earth in triumph.

It was in the shop that I found the shelf of great ideas and also many of the ideas that ended up on the shelf. When my father would mutter “what so-and-so moved my drill”, and “why don’t those darn-blamed kids clean up after themselves”, I learned that when one was inventing Earth-transforming-things one should be careful about pissing off people on the Earth.

So I decided that before making the transport-one-anywhere-at-the-speed-of-thought-thing I should do my chores.

I’m almost finished with my chores now.

Next: Part 10 – Energy Transference