Year: 2005

Let me preface this entry by saying, “I hate IKEA.” There store is a veritable maze of which only people of the lemming persuasion are likely to enjoy.

So about 4 months ago I went to IKEA for the first time with Heather. I was sick when we went with some sort of stomach thing so that just added to the agony of the experience. And let me tell you when your body says, “You need to go to the bathroom—now!” You don’t want to be in the maze that is IKEA.

Twice.

Anyway, most of their furniture is cheaply made particle/mdf board with really cool design. If you get it wet it will likely turn into a giant expandable dinosaur (you know the kind—just add water). But they do have a couple of things in their store I like.

1. The lighting department.
2. The media storage.

Now they had these 15″ modular CD racks that looked like this:

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There was this cool display with about 6 of these mounted to a wall with mini spotlights attached to the top. When I went to get some they had only two in stock. Those of you, who know my CD collection, know that I would need more than two. So the second time I went to IKEA I was sure to find them, right? Nope. So I began calling. I called about 2 times a month for a little over three months. FINALLY THEY CAME IN!

So last Saturday I got my tools together. This included the CD Racks, 1×4 poplar wood, screws, laser level and stud-finder necessary to begin my project:

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THE WALL O’ CDs

Keeping the demo room at IKEA in mind, I attempted to duplicate it—on a slightly larger scale. So here’s what I did:

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I used my laser level to line up my studs and the poplar lengths I had bought.

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Then I used my stud-finder, lined up the poplar and mounted it to the wall with screws.

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Then I lined up the next 3 pieces of poplar and started mounting the brackets with smaller screws in the corners.

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This turned out to be problematic, as I did not plan very well. You see, there was not enough room at either end to mount the last set of CD Racks.

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However, I put enough planning in that I would be able to save myself. So it was off to Home Depot for some 1x3s to finish it off. I returned quickly, finished getting the CD Racks mounted and tested it with a CD. 😉 Phew! It held the weight.

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Then I mounted the mini-spots and tested the rack with more actual CDs.

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Whew! Still held up under the pressure!

The end result:

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Pretty cool, huh?

I’ll build one for you too. But I’ll probably have to charge $1000 with the amount of labor I would need to charge to make up for it.

Ok, I’ve decided since once in awhile I create a new header for my blog–that when I do I’ll offer it up for comment.

So comment away!

🙂

This morning at about 7:35 I left for work. On my way up Olympia St. in Golden Valley where I live, I passed a school bus traveling in the opposite direction. As I neared the corner of Olympia and Douglas I noticed two boys around the age of 10-12 running as fast they could. I deducted they had just missed their bus.

Within moments a number of thoughts ran through my mind. I first remembered what it was like when you missed your bus. Though I don’t recall missing my bus ever in my life specifically, for some reason the scenario of returning home to tell my mom I’d missed the bus was disagreeable. What if their mom wasn’t even home? Then what? They would miss school and the school would call. They’d be in trouble. They looked determined and tired from running. The younger one had nearly given up as his brother stopped for a moment and then with shear determination dashed off to catch the now out-of-sight bus. The last thought was I could be a “Good Samaritan” and catch them up to their bus.

Now, with all the crazies in the world, the thought that those two kids needed a ride to catch up to their bus is a philosophical question for which I’m not sure I’m entirely equipped to answer. You see, they ought not to enter a strange man’s vehicle. But this was 7:35 in the morning. There were many witnesses in vehicles near me. And I’m not a crazy.

I turned my car around and asked the obvious question of the younger brother, “Did you guys miss your bus?”

“Yeah.”, he replied.

“Well, you better hop in so we can catch it.” I said.

The door opened and he jumped in. Within moments I caught up to his brother and hastily we were in hot pursuit. The boys helped me track the bus until I had it in sight and then I slowly drove up along side the bus at the driver’s current stop after the last child at that stop had boarded. The driver saw me coming up on his left and pointed at his stop sign to give me a warning that I shouldn’t be driving up on the wrong side of the road. I rolled down my passenger window. The boys jumped out and ran around the back side of the bus to board as I said, “I have a couple of strays here.” The bus driver nodded and smiled and I carefully backed up my vehicle, turned around and went to work.

The whole experience had me thinking on the way to work. As I said before, there are too many creepy people in this world that kidnap children and do unspeakable things. Part of me felt guilty for picking them up to catch the bus. But mostly I wanted to help them. It’s important to go to school. It’s important to be able to trust your neighbors. And it’s important to support your community and show that not everyone in this world is psycho. I’m glad we caught up with the bus and I’m glad they were safely on their way to school.