HAVE WE REACHED THE UTIMATE IN 'ON LINE' SHOPPING

      As my wife signed out of her AMAZON account, I had to ask myself. 
'Have we reached the ultimate in 'on line' shopping?'

      It was another nice weekend here in sunny Florida. Penny and I have been busy each weekend with a number of projects around the house. But with all the cleaning, painting and window repair, I got the urge to build something.

      I like building furniture, and every once in a while I like to get away from the home improvement projects and wrap myself around a good furniture project.

      So I decided to finally build the maple coffee and end table that Penny has been asking for. I wanted to use Maple to match the Aquarium stands and bookcases I made a few years ago.

      She never cared for the original design and wanted something with two shelves and without the glass top.

      So I went to the drawing board and came up with something she could 'live with.'

      My new design has similar legs but a solid maple top. And to make Penny happy, a lower shelf. Not wanting to waste a lot of good hard maple, I decided to use maple veneered plywood.

      So where in Central Florida do you find hardwood plywood? Yes the box stores carry oak and birch, so I turned to my best friend. Mr Google.

      As I searched for 'Maple Plywood', I quickly discovered that Lowes  
carried it. YEAH !! But wait, the small print says 'not available in your area.'

      Next up was 'Home Dept'. Yes they had it, so off to Home Dept we went. They had no idea what I was talking about.

      "Use Birch" they told me. Obviously they knew nothing about woodworking and/or furniture making. (Although the service I received was excellent. Far superior than the other place. They immediately looked it up on their computer, but found that it was discontinued.) They even gave me some suggestions on where I might get it locally. What great service.

      Birch and Maple are similar, so close in color and grain that I might get away with using it. But I am not taking the chance. 

      Unfortunately, their suggestions did not pan out, so I kept searching. I found another local possibility but they are closed on weekends. And weekends are the only days I have to shop.

      I was not going to wait until my next weekday off, so out to the shop I went, dejection written all over my face.

      When I came back into the house for another mug of coffee, Penny was sitting at the kitchen table, Ipad open and a huge grin on her face. 

     "You want me to order it from AMAZON?" she asked.

      "Amazon?" I quickly replied. "You can buy plywood from Amazon?" 

     "Dear, you can buy anything from Amazon. If they don't sell it, you don't need it." 

      And I thought I was the computer genius in the family.

      I don't feel guilty by not shopping locally. If you don't have it at an hour that fits my schedule, I will buy it online. 

      I get up early on Saturdays. This weekend was no exception as my eyes popped open at 3:30. It's my favorite time of the day. If I need to run an errand, I do it early. I can be at Wal Mart at 6:30 and then get to Lowes or Home Depot by 7. Usually I am back in the shop by 7:30, done running around for the weekend. 

      So sometime this week a 4 foot by 8 foot box will arrive on our doorstep with a piece of Maple Plywood for my project.

      If you need me this weekend, I'll be out in the shop making saw dust.

      I'll let you know how it turns out.

     Have a great week.