Does this “Resin-ate”?

Wow! It’s amazing how quickly things can get away from us. My intention to blog every few days seems to have turned into every few months. Hopefully I’ll start to do better from now on. In the meantime. . .

This year Patchy has been experimenting with epoxy resin to work with wood. While it seemed like a cool thing to do, that work ended up having a special meaning earlier this spring.

This was supposed to be the test piece. The real piece was going to be a coffee table from the pieces behind it.

River tables have been a “thing” for a couple years now. We’re late to the game, so they’re probably going to be on their way out soon enough. But we think they’re neat. Back in January Patchy decided to make a test piece just to see what the fuss was all about. This ended up being a side table that went to Patchy’s son, Matt. But before that I sent this picture to my folks, to which my mom responded, ”It’s not nice to make your mother covet.” I suppose she felt like she was at risk of violating one of those later commandments. Or she wanted to make sure that my vocabulary wasn’t at risk of deteriorating. Either way it seemed like she was a fan.

While this blog was going to be about resin work that Patchy has done over the past 7 months or so, this part is about the financial swindling that goes on during the emotional parts of our lives, specifically those that are encountered infrequently for most of us, like weddings and funerals. And how to keep it from happening to you. My mom was the original saver. She got best value out of everything that she purchased and shared no small amount of glee at telling us about really good deals she had received. Crushingly, in late February, out of the blue, my mom got very ill with a rare autoimmune disease and six weeks later was gone from our lives. We’re still coming to terms with the magnitude of the loss and I’m sure that future blogs will be peppered with her lessons gleaned over the years. But this snippet is about the blatant thievery perpetrated on grieving families by funeral home grifters.

There we were, sitting across from the very distinguished, somber funeral home guy, still in shock and devastated, about to be taken for the ride of a lifetime by someone who should have been working in used car sales. We explained what we did and didn’t want, he nodded at the appropriate moments, took notes, and then gave us a price that seemed really steep but who wants to haggle over a loved one’s last moments. He asked us to sign a document that stated that he hadn’t sold us anything we didn’t need, which was signed because, you know, we told him what we didn’t want. And we were sent on our teary way with a stuffed folder full of paper and a catalog of urns and their prices.

We regrouped at my parent’s house to take a look at everything we had been given. And my sister, while flipping through the urn catalog and price list, in a moment of biting clarity and brilliance said, ”Mom would be so pissed. She would come back and kill us all for spending this much money on something to keep her ashes in. She’d tell us to go find something at HomeGoods and make sure to keep the receipt.” The lowest price for one of those urns, which was a cheap looking wood box was $200. They went all the way to $1000+ for nothing special. It was the emotional significance that allowed them to charge that amount for things that in any other store would be 1/10 the cost.

A few days later my sister read the invoice, which included being charged for all of the things we said we didn’t want. And then she went to battle with the funeral home and did our mom proud, recovering money that my dad should have never been charged. Thank god for brilliant, persistent sisters.

The moral of the story is that there are shysters out there who will absolutely rip you off during the most devastating time of your life. Demand the time to review the invoice before you leave or at the very least, don’t pay for anything there. Take everything with you and make a second appointment after you’ve read it thoroughly. And get an urn that means something. I think my sister is actually going to go to HomeGoods and find something our mom would have loved. Our other sister hasn’t decided what she’s going to do yet, but I’m sure it’ll lovingly reflect the relationship she shared with our mom.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the blog. The matching coffee table was temporarily pushed down the priority list in favor of something more important for me and my dad.

Ash and resin urn made by Patchy for my dad.

And mine.

We got back to the coffee table in the late spring/early summer but neglected to take pictures of it while in progress. This was the first really deep epoxy pour that we attempted. It was a giant pain to work with, and ended up curing too rapidly. Consequently, the epoxy shrunk and pulled away from the ends of the boards, leaving Patchy with the task of cutting, re-routing, and refinishing the top. We’ve since learned that we used the wrong stuff. Lesson learned, if you’re going to do a deep pour, use the stuff that’s formulated for a deep pour. But all’s well that ends well, even if it’s about 4 inches shorter than planned.

All done and ready for delivery.

Tested and approved by the grandbaby.

Patchy does the vast majority of the work on these tables. I come in with an assist now and again, mainly during the pouring process. One thing that we don’t do is bend metal. Our table legs all come from Csonka’s Custom Rustics https://csonkascustomrustics.com/ and not just because Patchy is a fan of the hapless Miami Dolphins. They do great work for a reasonable price.

What about you? Any fun projects over the summer? And experiences with shysters trying to separate you from your hard earned cash?

We’ll be doing some catch up work on what has been buzzing around the hive over the next few blogs. In the mean time, go make something. And hug your mom.