Know This Love: Building with Dad

I recently started a program of nutrition and supplementation to help me finish my healing process.

The diet is a bit restrictive and the supplements are expensive, but hey, it’s working.  I’m starting to feel better than I have in years — and smiling for no reason!

As part of the program, I use a near-infrared sauna to help detoxify my body.  I’ve used saunas before, but never near-infrared, and unfortunately, we didn’t own one and they’re expensive.

So guess what?  We built our own.  My dad and I, that is, with an occasional “please-hold-that-for-me” assist from my mom.

We constructed the frame with white PVC pipes, and made the heating unit out of wood, screws, red bulbs, chicken wire, and the materials required for wiring a basic light switch set-up.

We made a couple of mistakes — chiefly because I’m not exactly a master craftsman and the last time I used a drill wasn’t in this calendar year — but when we did, we started over and enjoyed trying again.

We didn’t mind making mistakes because we were enjoying the process, not just rushing toward the goal.  Let that sink in, and I won’t hit you over the head with that message.

When the frame and heating unit were finished, we cleared a space in the tool room in the basement and used blankets and quilts to cover the frame.

I’ve used it five days in a row as of this writing, and damn, it feels great!

Is it perfect?  No.  Had we chosen to spend thousands of dollars, we probably could have found something functionally “better.” But the whole sauna cost us around $100 and only three or four hours of our time.

More importantly, the time spent creating something with my hands — and with my dad, no less (okay, and my mom; she would be mad if I didn’t include her again) — was a priceless experience I’ll treasure long after I move to California in two months.