Seven Things You Don’t Know About Me

My friend Richie Escovedo, who also is a school communications/PR guy here in Texas, had a pretty cool post on his Web site today with a link to Facebook.  The topic: Seven Things You Don't Know About Me

His seven things are pretty funny.  I don't know that I can be as comical, but here is a try: 

1. My first public speaking opportunity came in 1976 when I was 10 years old.  Out school put together a Bicentennial program involving the flags of the United States.  I did the research for the opening comments of the show and presented them.  At this moment, I can still remember the glare of the lights and the sensation of walking out in front of the parents, etc. of the program in my Cub Scouts uniform and delivering my speech.  At the end of the program, when we got to the flag with 50 stars, I came back out with a classmate and delivered that talk as well.  In a safe place, I still have those felt flags we made back in 1976. This was at Leo P. McDonald Elementary School at K.I. Sawyer Michigan.
Dc as a kid

2. As a child, I wanted to do nothing more than be a pilot.
  In fact, I went to sleep most nights with thoughts of flying an airplane in a youth air force in a plane that I'd helped fashion using yet-to-be invented by me technology, where the plane was powered by electromagnetic energy and polarizing against the earth's magnetic fields–thereby making my plane FAST.  As you know, the earth has magnetic fields.  So my thinking, even as a 10-year-old kid was that you could make an engine in a plane that would put off the opposite charge of the respecitve magnetic field you were in, much like what happens when you try to push two magnets together at their same ends.  I've flown more fictional Cold War era missions into the USSR than I can count.

3.  In the first grade in Kansas at McConnell AFB in Wichita, I dressed up one day with a blue shirt on, and taped all over my shirt were various U.S. Air Force insignia.  At one point in the day, I went to the bathroom to take them all off. I can remember my teacher talking to another teacher and laughing, but not in a harmful way.  They thought it was cute.   Of course, at that age with my toadstool mop, I was.

4)  In Mrs. Reid's eighth grade newspaper class at Mitchell Middle School in Atwater, CA in 1979, I got an F on a paper and a D in the class because she wanted us to write a fictional short story for the class and I refused to do so–after all, we were in a NEWSPAPER class and supposed to be presenting the facts, not making them up.  My "short story" became a news account of how we weren't supposed to be writing fiction in a newspaper class.  She gave me an F on the paper, but I didn't waiver on my belief that it was the wrong thing to be doing.

5)  I didn't know my dad had been shot down in an Air Force Huey Green Hornet unit helicopter in Viet Nam until about 6 years after it happened.  We were in Indiana, passing through on our way from Michigan back to California and Grandma Claxton said one day as we were getting out of the car, "You remember that time when your dad quit writing your mom every day because he'd been shot down…."  Uh, remember what?  Dad never has talked about that.  Even with my 20 questions that followed.  I found his incident report years later in his papers in our shed out back in Alabama.  They were flying low over the jungle one day, he saw something and immediately began to bank the chopper.  As he did, both of his door gunners got shot and cut in half by the shells.  One shot went between my dad's legs and up through the ceiling of the aircraft.  They crashed, but he was able to destroy the radios in the chopper and thankfully, another chopper swooped down and picked him up. 

6)  I got up one Christmas morning in 1970 while we were back in Indiana and dad was off to the war, and my late Grandma Sheptak says I walked out into the living room, looked at the tree, didn't see what I want and said, "No Bike!"  And turned around and went back to my room. 

7)  In Kansas in 1971, we were staying in a small house before moving into base housing at McConnell AFB and my brother and I came running from down the street because we thought we were hearing fire crackers.  As we raced toward my dad, I remember yelling, "We want to see the firecrackers!"  He scooped us up and got us inside.  As we were taken inside, I remember seeing my neighbor trying to get into his car kinda jumping into the air with one leg up as his wife stood at the front door shooting at him.  She'd caught him fooling around on her and she'd met him at the door with a gun.  I remember being sent to our rooms with the window shades closed so that we couldn't see the police cars.  They found the guy about an hour or so later in a grocery parking lot, having been shot in the leg. 

I could go on, but this will do for today.  Tell the world seven things it doesn't know about you.  This has been fun. 

 

Santa Sleigh and Santa Workshop Festive and Simple Build 2008

Want to build your own life-sized Santa Sleigh?

Several readers expressed interest in how I built the Santa Sleigh and the Santa Workshop in time for Christmas.

Since I was a child, I’ve loved the five following treasures and events:

  • The woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the UP’s long, cold, snowy winters.
  • Woodworking projects of all shapes and sizes.
  • Activities that give me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.
  • Bringing smiles to those around us and helping others in need.
  • A white Christmas! 

The Santa Sleigh, Santa Workshop, and Christmas 2008

I never drew a set of plants to make the Santa Sleigh in 2008, but future me thinks that’s not a bad idea!

The great thing about the Santa Workshop is it will double as a doll house for my four-year-old.

Given the situation with the weather, spring, and summer feel right around the corner here in North Texas in late 2008.

And unfortunately, a white Christmas seems unlikely.

Building the Santa Sleigh in my garage.

Supplies I used to make the Santa Sleigh and Santa Workshop.

I approached these two projects with the idea of making them easy to disassemble come January 2009.

This means the build uses 1-3/4-inch and 2-1/2-inch outdoor screws for assembly.

I bought a 3/4-inch 4-foot by 8-foot piece of ply for each side of the Santa Sleigh and another for the front of the Santa Workshop.

For the sides and the roof of the workshop, I bought 1/2-inch roofing boards.

One sheet of MDB/MDG made the Santa Sleigh seat so Santa didn’t end up with a burr under his saddle, aka., splinters in uncomfy places.

An image of my Santa Sleigh from the rear of the design. The body is framed with 2" x 4"s and the facade is ply and MDB.

An image of my Santa Sleigh from the rear of the design. The body is framed with 2″ x 4″s and the facade is ply and MDB.

Making a Santa Sleigh without a pattern.

To make the Santa Sleigh design, my imagination took over when I picked up a pencil and a four-foot level.

(Again, Future Me is telling me 14 years later that I should draw out the plans….)

My 4-foot level helped as a long straight edge for the Santa Sleigh skids.

A piece of wire used as a compass helped make the curves along the front vertical planes look round and smooth.

After designing and drawing out the shape of the Santa Sleigh, I used a Sharpie to make the results of cutting the sleigh’s body pleasing to the eye.

Cutting the Santa Sleigh facade parts.

To cut my design’s lines, I used a jigsaw as a circular saw, for obvious reasons, would not work.

Once I had the one piece cut, I simply laid out another 4-foot by eight-foot piece of plywood and set it on top, and traced the first piece.

About an hour I cut out both sides of the Santa Sleigh.

The Santa Sleigh frame

The skids have 2″ x 4-inch boards running front to back and across the floorboard to form the foundation for the rest of the frame.

The frame is strong enough so that “Santa” could rest on the seat along with a child and/or parent at the same time.

Building a series of tiers tied to the 2″ x 4″ x 54″ and 2″ x 4″ x 48″ framing makes the structure sound.

The Santa Sleigh framing inside view, complete with Ashleigh "helping" me build.

The Santa Sleigh framing inside view, complete with Ashleigh “helping” me build.

Supports for the frame ensure the solidness of the sleigh.

I added spacing with 2″ x 4″ supports 9-3/4″ apart, and additional supports between them at the front of the sleigh, the rear, and at the stress points, ensuring the sleigh will not going to fall apart any time soon.

The rear view of the Santa Sleigh should provide a better understanding.

Rear view of the 2008 Santa Sleigh build. This highlights the 2" x 4" framing inside.

Rear view of the 2008 Santa Sleigh build. This highlights the 2″ x 4″ framing inside.

The flooring for my 2008 Santa Sleigh build.

The Santa Sleigh flooring required a sheet of plywood braced by three 2″ x 4″ x 32″ spans across the sleigh.

This enabled the further strengthening of the sleigh by adding to the boxes for the seating.

The Santa Sleigh flooring and seating boxes strengthen the frame while also ensuring a place for Santa et al. to have a place to sit on the life-sized sleigh.

The Santa Sleigh flooring and seating boxes strengthen the frame while also ensuring a place for Santa et al. to have a place to sit on the life-sized sleigh.

 

Building the front footplate for my Santa Sleigh.

Santa Sleigh cabin section, complete with flooring, front footplate, and gift bag area to the rear.

Santa Sleigh cabin section, complete with flooring, front footplate, and gift bag area to the rear.

I built the front footplate and Santa’s backrest before sealing the back of the sleigh.

Again, all of this is screwed together, so in January the sleigh is storable after disassembly.

Painting the Santa Sleigh. 

Again, I didn’t have a set of drawings for building the sleigh, and this applies to the way it’s painted, too.

We all know from historical references that Santa’s Sleigh is red.

Bright red.

Applying the 60:30:10 rule of color design.

Santa Sleigh with Santa in it, demonstrating the 60:30: 10 rule of color design.

Santa Sleigh with Santa in it, demonstrating the 60:30: 10 rule of color design.

UPDATE 2023: I did not realize in 2008 this is what we did to paint our Santa Sleigh, but the 60:30:10 rule’s application works well. 

This aspect of painting the sleigh came easy; not to mention the application of the 60:30:10 design rule for applying color.

Black became 30 percent of the color or in some proximate way.

The highlight color, naturally, yellow, implies something of a golden aura to what children view as magical.

SANTA’S WORKSHOP

Santa’s Workshop is really simple.  I got a 4 x8 foot plyboard, went about 2/3s of the way up, and angled off to the middle for the top point.

Then I used a 48-inch wide section and then tapered it off as I dropped to the bottom of the board.

This gives the Santa Workshop a smaller size at the bottom frame.

The inside is made up of a simple square 2 x 4 frame, and then I ran the 2 x 4s up the side of the structure so that I could fasten the side walls to them.

Once I had the front and the back attached to the framing, I secured them with side beams.

The finer details of my Santa Workshop.

Once the floor was in, I drew the door and the panes for the windows on the front panel and used a jigsaw to cut them out.Santas_workshop_front

I have some 2 x 4 boards I’m going to use to secure the roofing and plan to get 2 more 4 x 8 boards and run them lengthwise to make the roofing.  I don’t think it will be 8 feet long though.  I will let you know when I get to that point.

Photos are included to help you work your way through it all.

Santas_workshop_side

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send them via my contact form. 

Of course, when I get the two items completed this weekend, they will be painted and trimmed out.

You can learn more about how I built Santa’s Sleigh from:

 

Awesome Santa’s Sleigh and Santa’s Workshop 2008

An update on the Santa Sleigh and the Santa workshop builds. 

It’s been a busy weekend of woodworking at the Claxton house.

If you do not know, our house in Balch Springs, Texas serves as a waypoint for Santa during his around-the-world adventures of gift-giving each year.

This Christmas season our Christmas decor expanded.

You see, Santa sent me the mental designs of a Santa Sleigh, and a 48″ x 36″ x 8′ “Santa Workshop.”

Building each piece fills me with the Christmas spirit.

What kid do you know who wouldn’t want a life-sized Santa Sleigh in their front yard?!

The evidence proves this is a great idea.

Neighborhood children have come from near and far to play on my Santa Sleigh and will be back with their parents once Santa arrives.

How cool is that?

Cool enough to have nine kids and a kitten in the sleigh at one point today.

Before long I will finish my replica of Santa’s Sleigh and the Elf Workshop, and then we’ll paint them.

Then they’re going out in front where, in December, Santa will join us several nights so the neighborhood children can bring their parents and take photos.

No need to drive to the mall.

Here are a couple of pics from the day.

Santa's Sleigh nears completion and already serves as a magnet for local children to enjoy as we ready for Christmas.

Santa’s Sleigh nears completion and already serves as a magnet for local children to enjoy as we ready for Christmas.

You can learn more about how I built Santa’s Sleigh from: