A friend who we will call David, because almost all of my friends are named David, asked me for a favor. A somewhat weird favor. The favor involved me teaching some 10 & 11 year old boys and girls to mig weld.

The kids are doing DI, Destination Imagination. Their project solution requires some welding, and the program apparrently requires the kids to do all the work. This is where I come in. I have a mig welder and it didn't occur to me to say no-way-Jose when David asked me to help out. Oh yeah, I also have the welding expertise or so I hear.

Tuesday evening I went to one of the groups work sessions to talk about welding and safety. I took with me a welding mask, elbow length leather welding gloves, a flash light (to demo the auto-darkening mask), a couple of small pieces of metal welded together, and a piece of welding wire.

The meeting was being held at the school. As I was approaching the class room, an idea occurred to me. I put on the mask, and gloves and opened the door. The kids got a real kick out it. "Luke, I am your father." Did you know that my leather welding gloves are made from goat skin? The kids sure loved that.

Tomorrow evening David is bringing a group of the kids over to the house to learn to weld. This should be fun. Safety first!