A Clock Tower, Of course!
The Guy and I were driving to Coos Bay, sitting in a comfortable silence in between the random topics we normally discuss.
“I want to get something,” he says thoughtfully at one point. Then pauses.
“It’s for the business, and I’ll help pay for it when I sell the truck.”
Uh oh, he’s compromising before we’ve even talked about it. Whatever it is.
“Ok…?” I answer tentatively.
“I want to build a clock tower for the building. It’s a train station, it needs a clock tower,” he states.
I know better than to argue when The Guy gets on this type of roll. 2 months, several thousands of dollars, and a big giant smile on his face later – we have our custom-made Siltcoos Station clock.
This is the prototype he created and sent into the custom clock maker. It would take 6 to 8 weeks before we’d receive it.
And our fancy new clock still needed its tower. So of course, The Guy set out to work.
Where the tree fell through the building, he built a square box as the base of the clock tower.
Then, using the shiplap from the interior that was destroyed, he repurposed it into the walls of the tower.
With the help of some rope and 2×4’s, he dragged it up to the roof.
Then, he attached Part A to Part B.
Waterproofed that sucker.
Shingled it (is shingled a verb?) and topped it off with a copper train.
Then he added a couple of vents to each side.
And at this point, we patiently waited for the clock to arrive. It was supposed to arrive on a Friday and we waited for the delivery in anticipation.
It didn’t show up.
The Guy pretended all weekend like it was no big deal. But come that Monday, he was beside himself with excitement. Here it is – Behold!
It was made perfectly and the biggest clock we’d ever owned!
Two days of wiring and installing later, he was ready for the big reveal.
Like a kid in a candy store, he excitedly called me out as a witness to The Turning on of The Clock.
“If anything sparks or makes a noise, yell,” he said as he went into the building to flip the switch.
Of course, like mostly everything else he does, it went without a hitch and looked stunning.
As we walked back toward the house, I said to him, “Stop and stand there for a sec,” and snapped his photo. Normally, he hates photos. But that big smile was too genuine to miss.
“I’m so glad it worked. Man, I’m tired. What time is it?” he asked.
I stared at him to see if he was joking.
“Well Dannon, let’s look at the clock you just built.”
“Oh yeah!” he said, turning around.
And we both laughed.
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