Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
Don Shelby builds a “green” home in Excelsior. Page 4
Home & Lifestyle
March 17, 2016
March Issue
Rosemount man’s passion is woodworking BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Steve Bleichner’s “man cave” is a well-appointed woodworking shop in the basement of the Rosemount home where he’s lived for 40 years. It is there that he turns out small, intricately designed racing cars, coasters, cutting boards and cribbage boards. He’s also created bigger items, such as larger wooden trucks, coffee tables, corner cabinets, side tables, footstools and lamps. He built a cradle that all four of his grandchildren have used and that will be passed down to future generations. “I live to get downstairs and do that woodworking,” Bleichner said. “It’s just so much fun for me. I relax there like I don’t anywhere else. It’s my getaway.” But here’s the catch. Bleichner has been blind for 22 years. “I drove to work one day, and lost my sight within two hours,” said Bleichner, who was working in the city of Bloomington’s Street Department at the time. “I was diabetic and I was taking a lot of medications,” he said. “What nobody knew then was that I only had one kidney and it wasn’t a real good one. All of a sudden, the kidney stopped, all my medications went toxic and it blew the inside of my eyes apart. Everything went pink, then a violet purple and then it went blank.” A co-worker drove him home. Bleichner wound up having a kidney and pancreatic transplant. Doctors were able to preserve some vision in Bleichner’s left eye. But he lost all sight in his right eye. “I can see contrasts, shapes and some movement,” he said. “I was in my early 40s when I went blind, and it really threw me for a loop at first,” Bleichner said. “I was used to riding motorcycles all over the country, drag racing and having fun.” Bleichner, who at one time worked in paint and body
A base for a larger truck is a work in progress. (Photo by Sue Webber)
shops and did welding and fabricating, subsequently went to classes two to three times weekly for two years at Blind Inc. clinic in Minneapolis and Vision Loss Resources. “I learned braille and cane travel there,” he said. He credits “really great teachers” with helping him find
h tools. l “I “ couldn’t ld ’ imagine how h things h a way to workk with were going to happen, but they really customize their teaching to match each student’s needs and level,” he said. “They taught me tricks so I wouldn’t get my hands near the blade.” His doesn’t allow his disability to stand in the way of the woodworking he has loved to do since he was 7 years old. “My grandma refinished some furniture, and that caught my attention,” Bleichner said. “When I was in junior high school I took woodshop classes and I was hooked. I had really wonderful teachers in junior high and at [Bloomington] Kennedy High School.” “When I lost my sight, I couldn’t begin to imagine how I would measure things, set up my machines, make sure things were cut square and not get my fingers cut off or my clothing caught in the machines,” Bleichner said. But to his credit, he’s never had a major accident in his wood shop. He creates cardboard patterns for each project prior to starting. “Unlike most woodworkers, I love to do the sanding,” Bleichner said. He has a click meter he uses in place of a tape measure. “In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t imagine how I was going to measure things accurately,” Bleichner said. “This click meter is more accurate than a tape measure.” Every nail, tool and piece of equipment has its own place in his well-appointed shop, so Bleichner can find whatever he needs. Nothing is wasted in his shop; he finds uses for all the sawdust and every scrap of wood he has. Aside from creating wood pieces for family members and friends, what he produces is donated to St. Jude Medical Center, YMCA, and to the Minnesota Zoo for its annual Beastly Ball auction. “I don’t want it to be a job; this is for fun,” he said. Bleichner credits his wife, Sue, his high school sweetheart from Bloomington Kennedy, with being his inspiraWOODWORKING - TO PAGE 3