New Cribbage Board

7 Dec, 2016; Quartzite, AZ

Another project . . .

When my friend Lyda was visiting, I discovered that I had misplaced my cribbage board!!  This was kind of a big deal because it was really a very nifty game box that had belonged to my Dad.  It contained a deck of cards, some dice, some poker chips and the cover had the cribbage board..  It had 3 of the original pegs with the 4th peg being a replacement peg that my Dad had whittled from an old wood matchstick.  I’ve torn the trailer apart and asked everyone I know – so far, it’s still misplaced. I’m hoping that I left it in my storage facility (although why I would have stored it and  brought the Yahtzee game, I can’t imagine!).

Anyway, that means I have no cribbage board!  So, I started looking around to make something.  My first thought was to drill holes into a piece of dead cactus – Lyda and I had made driftwood cribbage boards to sell when we were low on cash in Homer Alaska over 40 years ago.  But, alas, after days of desert walking, I couldn’t find any suitable chunks of wood.

I was wandering through one of the Quartzite swap meets when I came across a vintage wooden cigar box.  Now, that brings back memories!  My Dad used to smoke cigars and used the boxes for any number of storage needs.  So, I bought and brought it home thinking this would be a quick process to use my mini-dremel to punch out the holes for the cribbage scoring in the lid. 

Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!  Like any project could be that easy!!!  Turns out I had no drill bits in the dremel kit.  Went to the Q. hardware store; they didn’t have any dremel drill bits.  Went to a hardware store in Parker, AZ.  Got a couple small drill bits that I thought would fit – they didn’t.  Then, I remembered that the hardware store in Q. had several sizes of collettes – little gizmos that allow you to use different sized attachments in the dremel.  So, back I go to Q. – get one, (of course, it fits the dremel but not the bits), go back and exchange the collette for a different one and try again! 

Are you keeping count?  So far, for the hardware store runs alone, the count is 4 (usually for any home project, I average 3 trips).  Finally, I drilled all the holes; whittled some pegs from my fancy tea-tree oil wood toothpicks; got some cards and poker chips from the Dollar Store and now I have a bigger – but very serviceable game box.  And, it fits the Yahtzee game too!

Another weird Southwest thing . . .

I have been noticing that on the entry doors to a number of businesses in Quartzite, that there are covers on the door handles.  Some are neoprene; others seem to be knitted or crocheted.  It finally dawned on me that in the summer, the door handles are probably literally too hot to handle without getting burned.  What a good idea!!

Another sunset . . . . because how can I resist?