My wife Kim. My sister Sara.
Franky. Bilow. Hunter.
That is the whole cast. Everybody else in this story is me, and I was not doing well.
I drank. For a long time, and hard enough that it cost me things I am not going to list here, partly out of dignity and partly because it is a long list and you came here for a cutting board.
Sara told me to come over. September 10th, 2024 is my date.
Kim stayed when staying was not the easy call. I have asked her about this. She does not have a good answer either.
The three guys picked up the phone. Every time, at hours that were not reasonable, and never once made it into a thing.
The grain kept calling that whole time. Even at my worst I could not walk past a stack of walnut without stopping to look at it. I could not have told you why. It was the one thing that stayed interesting when nothing else did, which is a low bar, and it cleared it.
A while back I flew out to see the guys. We were driving somewhere and Franky asked what I would actually want to do if I got to pick. I told him. He told me to go do it. That was the whole conversation. It took about four minutes and I was not even driving, which is the correct amount of responsibility for me to have at any given moment.
So here I am. I build edge grain cutting boards. Domestics and exotics. Kiln-dried stock, cut and glued and flattened and sanded by me, finished by hand with mineral oil and beeswax. Both food safe. Neither one is a snack.
Every board comes out a little different because the grain does what it wants. I have stopped trying to talk it out of anything. It does not listen and it has a better track record than I do.
They call me the Chess Devil.
If you want a board, take a look. They are made one at a time by a guy who is glad to be here for it.
And if you are in the part of the story I used to be in, there is a number. 1-800-662-HELP (4357). Free, confidential, 24 hours a day. Somebody picks up at three in the morning. You can also text your ZIP code to 435748.
I hope you find your Sara, your Kim, and your Dark Matters too.