Tall Table

Funny, the things you do.

This past weekend, I made a pool table taller.

It’s a miniature pool table we bought for the kids years ago. It’s served us well, but lately has been on wobbly legs as the particleboard they’re made of cracked and broke.

A few weeks ago I bought some 1x4s so I could make new legs, and after I got home from a campout and five-mile hike over lava rock with my boy scout troop, Michelle decided Saturday afternoon would be the best day to get the pool table job done.

I wasn’t looking forward to it, but, you know, she’s downstairs shampooing carpets, and we had to move the table anyway . . .

So I took the legs off and threw them away, with the exception of the cross braces. I then decided, before I cut the new legs, to consult the boss on whether she wanted a taller table. As it is, we all have to stoop now to play pool. So a taller table it was to be.

I wanted to re-use the same bolts, but the new legs were thicker. So I did a little counterboring and got the old bolts to work with the new legs. (It struck me: I know exactly what to do to fix this table and the problems I encountered while fixing it. I have absolutely turned into my father.)

As I worked, one of my scouts stopped by. He wanted to turn in his Hiking merit badge card – the last merit badge he has to earn before he can become an Eagle Scout. So huzzah to him. He’s pretty excited and didn’t seem to mind seeing his scoutmaster in his slippers, covered with sawdust.

Seeing him got me to thinking about that hike – across the lava flows at Hell’s Half Acre. Rough territory. There was a fair amount of walking, but also a fair amount of clambering up and down the slopes of collapsed lava tubes and craters. One carter in particular caught their attention – they called in the Hunger Games Arena. They want to go back. Going back would be their third time there. Good sign.

I want to go back too. Maybe in a weekend or two, Liam and I will go walk all the way out to the vent. But today would be a mysterious day to do it – I’m at work and it’s foggy in the desert.

Back to the pool table.

I did indeed make it six inches taller. At least that’s how it started out. I also put the table’s feet back on. That seemed to make it about a foot taller. It looks like a giraffe on which one can play pool.