How to be happy in 2021 (despite everything)

[Keith 66]

I m lucky in that i was just able to retire, though i was in a job i enjoyed most of the time the boss was a waste of space & i was glad to be able to leave. Probably the reason i have spent most of my life self employed was that i dont like being ordered around by idiots!
It also helps to be & stay creative, it takes your mind of all the bad **** going on. I have a good workshop & spend a lot of time in it making stuff. Last week it was a heavy welding & metalwork job making a hydraulic press for a boat project i have on the go.
This week its fine tiny woodwork finishing off a hurdy gurdy im building.
I have a good dog & he keeps me sane as well.
Fortunately i get on well with my wife too!

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

A hurdy gurdy? Wow you don’t see those around much

 

[Keith 66]

The hurdy gurdy is undergoing quite a revival, it always tended to be a complicated expensive handmade instrument but a Dutch engineer designed & made a laser cut version called the Nerdy Gurdy, It can actually sound quite good & is a good entry level if you are into such things. There is also a laser cut thing made by Ugears which sounds absolutely atrocious!
I built a Nerdy gurdy a few years ago at the school i worked at, the one im doing now is a sort of frankengurdy it uses the laser cut keybox & a few other bits put onto a coffin body. It is kind of an experimental version to see how best to build a high quality one.
Big learning curve but now i know that i am capable of it im looking forward to building no 2.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The hurdy gurdy is undergoing quite a revival,

I have never heard one, having listened to this i am not surprised.

 

[Clint]

We have a thing in work we call the hurdy gurdy,....it's a contraption for lifting drums of chemicals and tilting them to pour out what you need..it could very well be medieval!