Today is the last day of the month. Traditionally, this would be a transitionary month, the bridge between school and summer or the weather in spring and summer. Not this year… it has been nicer than usual since early March.
I don’t think anyone would doubt that July is definitely summer in the northern hemisphere. What has this got to do with anything? Nothing really. It is just something I am thinking about since we will be in July next week and I am still waxing about the lost experiences from graduation and the like. I am also just sort of rambling because I am not feeling passionate about any one thing in particular this morning.
I have lots of things that I want to talk about, but mostly I am anxious to get back out there and get to work. I can smell the end is near and I want to get there with my project. So, then I don’t want to take the time to develop a proper article.
A quick aside… I always thought that I would have quite a bit humor in my more creative work – such as this. That has not proven to be the case, which is a little strange. Maybe it is because context and inflection is difficult to discern through writing only? Or maybe I am just not as good as I thought I was or just too lazy?
I don’t know why I have not added more humor, it is part of my character. I like to add little ‘easter eggs’ to see if people are paying attention or not. But yet I have not done anything like that to date. I guess that I will settle for a photo grid of my project and call it a day. I have got some video editing to do when I get a chance. So, stay tuned for that.
My mad dash into everything started Friday. I spent two hours on a personality test for a job prospective. I wanted to finish the roof, which I did in about an hour and then it was time to get the kids off to the grandparents so that my wife an I could enjoy the ‘Anniversary Weekend’.
We had another lovely dinner at the Joel Palmer House on Friday night to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. We capped the night off with a quiet fire (for once). Anyway, I am not going to go into all of our celebration but it lasted all weekend. Smack dab in the middle we got this little girl.
Moving on to this week’s message…
Admittedly, this week wandered a little for me. I think that I got the gist of what was being said. I will paraphrase… there is a holy association that we have despite our residence or citizenship. We need to keep our eyes on the right things rather than getting caught up in a more temporal existence. Submitting to secular authority is part of our duties as citizens of the holy nation.
Now, I haven’t been super direct about my beliefs and I intellectually understand that there is a certain zen or reverence in submission. Not that I know first hand, but I believe that monks act in similar belief. So there must be something to that. I suppose that you can distill it down more coarsely by saying ‘put up with what is going on here so that you can have a better, future life (in heaven)’.
Interestingly enough, in these two weeks there is a whole series on freedom in The Survival Podcast. The thrust of the series is about developing personal independence so that freedom is more attainable. These would be more in-line with career happiness and lifestyle. However, I think that the two work nicely together.
The questions of the week are
What is the most important thing about your freedom?
What can you do this week to honor the freedom that you have?
To me the first question is easy. The most important thing about freedom to me is that people appreciate it and do not take it for granted, for the greater good. One of the episodes last week, Jack implied that people dont really want freedom. By living in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association, by caring about what their neighbors are doing, etc we take away our own freedoms voluntarily.
The application questions are always harder. They require analysis and action. My toolbox fallacy kicks in. It is really this time writing that is my thinking and analysis time. One thing for sure that we are going to do to honor our freedom is celebrate the Fourth of July. Maybe that was intentional?
When I started this category a couple of months ago, I had visions of lots of fun. I would measure since the beginning of the year, I have been super involved in two projects that have consumed most of my time seven days a week. However, I have been thinking of this since the fall and that is what is known as the ‘quarter drill’.
Last fall, when my son was on the trap team, the coach had the kids do what she called the quarter drill. The basics of this drill was to put a quarter on the barrel and mount the shotgun without the quarter falling off. They were supposed to do this ten times a day or so with the idea that the mount would become more consistent.
Before we get too far, in trap the shooter generally starts with the gun mounted, so I am not sure what the overall purpose was other than getting used to handling the gun. However, when hunting this can be a very valuable skill. I think that it was also helpful for my son who really didn’t have a lot of firearm familiarity.
I couldn’t quickly find an example video of the quarter drill and I didn’t have time to make one. But I did find this one which uses a flashlight and is of the same end goal of a smooth mount.
Shooting clay targets is fun. I have heard it described as golfing with a shotgun. I won’t go into all of the disciplines today, but it is the kind of activity that you can find a place to rent all of the equipment if you have an interest, but not the gear. There are leagues and tournaments for like minded groups like women or youth.
Just be forewarned that you can get started with a $200 shotgun but there are a lot of $5000 guns out there when you get into these clubs. That being said, don’t be afraid to be and say that you are a new and you will get all the help you want. Have fun and be safe.
It has been a long day. I usually post in the morning, but today I started work early because it is hot on the roof. So, I spent all day on the roof, making a lot of progress, but I had to stop because I am waiting for vent pipe to be run through the roof so that I can flash around them and finish this thing off. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.
After looking inside the bathroom, my wife was concerned that it was too dark. Add a skylight to the list. And then when I was talking to the contractor, he was surprised that I didn’t vent the roof. Now, quick aside for a moment. I listen weekly to the Fine Homebuilding podcast and according to them, the science on vented roofs says that venting really does not actually extend the life of a roof, and therefore unnecessary.
Moisture management is really the key concern, not roof life. Even though the addition is open to the currently vented roof, I am a little concerned that moisture from the bathroom cannot adequately equilibrate efficiently, so I am going to add a roof vent as well.
Think like a raindrop was a phrase that my grandfather used. The older I get the more I understand. At seventeen, I didn’t really understand how water behaved. Now knowing some science I can understand water travels by gravity. It also adheres to surfaces with surface tension. You want to keep water away from the building and make paths for efficient flow.
I remember roofing a garage or some other outbuilding and he kept saying over and over that you need to ‘think like a raindrop’. He must have seen the puzzled look on my face, because he then said ‘if you want to keep the water out, you need to think like a raindrop’, he laughed and moved on. He was always saying some sort of colloquialism or bit of wisdom that was wrapped up in a cryptic message of sorts. It’s funny, but those are the things that stick the most to my memory.
I am cutting this a little short since I lost internet connection last night when I wrote most of this (and lost a bunch of additional work too). It seems like a fitting tribute to my grandfather that I can do all these things. I almost cant wait for the rain this weekend to prove the I can now think like a raindrop.
I am giving credit here to Jack Spirko at the Survival Podcast for coining the three things to make a business (or any endeavor) successful. There may be a little bit of self analysis here too before I get done.
Back when I was working a job, I was a support manager for a software engineering company. One of the frequent hang-ups between adding a new customer was whether my company had in-depth knowledge of the software that we were potentially proposing to support. The prevailing position was that if we did not write the software, then we would not be able to support the software.
Yes it is true that potentially supporting software that was compiled by someone else could leave some risk. Before I get too technical, compiling is the act of taking some base level computer code and packaging it up into an executable form. You could make the analogy to baking. The code is the ingredients and what runs are the results. In the case of software, you cant get from the cake back to the ingredients unless you made the cake. I hope that was simple enough.
Here is a another fact, my team did not write any of the code that we supported. So, to them it was frequently all new. Having access to subject matter experts was possible but it was just as possible that the person that wrote the code did not work at the company anymore. Real production type emergencies did not allow us the time to do any sort of reading or studying of what the system was supposed to do anyway.
My team bid on, won and successfully supported systems that our company did not build. They did not have the same boundary issues that others did in the company.
It is time to refresh on the ‘Toolbox Fallacy’.
You see, the Toolbox Fallacy is the antithesis of motivation, determination and imagination. It is all the reasons and excuses of why something cannot be done rather than just doing it.
I am no exception to this problem. I have told myself that when my pantry project is over, I can dedicate more time to this endeavor. Then came the apartment remodel. I want to move from this free blog format to a dedicated host (when this project is over). I need to develop a clearer purpose and target audience before I migrate. I told myself that would first work on posting consistency before progressing into podcasting. I have been very comfortable posting once a day and then moving off to work on my project.
I suppose the thrust of the analysis is why am I lacking Motivation, Determination and/or Imagination in this endeavor. I can see aspects of all three. I know that in my logical, analytical mind setting goals and working toward a schedule would go a long way into remediating this. Another aspect is accountability. I could skip a week or a month without any real consequences (other than personal).
Despite all of that, at this stage I am going to hold on to the Toolbox Fallacy a little longer. I can see the light at the end of my project. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think about developing this medium daily… maybe it means that this is a hobby and not a future job. My recent spiritual re-awaking is starting to clarify aspects in my life that have long been fuzzy. It has made me accountable and thoughtful in more emotional ways than ever before.
One example of unexpected consequences was that I made a video about repairing a nail gun and now I am approaching 2000 views. I made it for a post on this blog, but now I have gotten a lot of questions about repairing nail guns. I never looked to see if there was any content out there and I made it for my own reasons, but maybe I should look at tool repair videos?
The final message for today is that I will keep looking at these principles and adjust accordingly when and where appropriate. Take a listen to the podcast because there is a lot of good information in there if you ever considered doing something of your own.
Yesterday was a good day, for me. It started off early where I got up and started the smoker. Our lives are so noisy, that it is sometimes difficult to recognize and therefor enjoy the hour or so of quiet on a Sunday morning. I got the turkey on about seven and cleaned and organized the garage while I was tending the smoker. That was the trend for the whole day, lots of small things got completed, like finally getting my plants in the ground. I think that I am going to have twenty tomato plants and ten cabbages from the looks of the starts.
It very well might be unpopular in today’s society to consider the father the ‘leader’ of the family. But we all know that traditionally that was the case. I suppose that it is pretty fair to say that not all leaders are cut from the same cloth. Many happen to get the title because they were there, not necessarily on qualification. Unfortunately, that is true across many aspects of life, both business and fatherhood included.
I am pretty sure that if you are reading this, than you are at least aware enough for self-reflection and interested in personal development. Evaluating the trend of today’s relativistic and hedonistic culture, I am concerned for the future. I am the last person that is going to preach or tell someone what to do. I am a libertarian anarchist after all.
So, knowing my opinions and thoughts you might be able to anticipate how I would approach the issues, lead by example first. I have said it before, freedom requires free will and choice. To me that also means some people are unfortunately not going to make the cut. They will willingly make the wrong choices. I am at peace with that, what I need to work on a more is acceptance through continued interaction (to lead by example).
This week’s questions are as follows
Where do you find protection, support and leadership in your life?
What is one thing that you can do to develop leadership this week?
If you are following along, you can tell that these weeks are all sort of intermingling. I believe that is by design. I have know this for some time now, but as I shared in our group yesterday that my healthiest levels of leadership were when I also had some sort of mentorship at the same time.
I believe that it is part of why I got to the point of leaving my job. I felt a tremendous amount of stress, I was unable to forgive perceived (or real) transgressions of the past and I had no level of mentorship or advocacy within my company. My team loved me and half left within three months of me, but everyone needs support and I didn’t have it.
Looking at the questions, the person that is in that role for me is my wife. That seems proportionately correct. However, when it came to things like my last job we had strong disagreements about whether I should quit my job without having a replacement. In the end, she was right that everything was OK and I am glad that I did at this point. That being said, one person cannot be all things.
For me, it seems like I need to increase the size of my social circle and seek mentorship as part of my self improvement journey. Those two may not be mutually exclusive but may come in the same package. I don’t know if I can realistically do all that in one week, but I have taken the time to identify that problem and will keep an eye out.
Sometimes my mind goes in a direction that seems like it is different than everyone else. For instance, while remodeling the kitchen to add the new microwave hood, I found a piece of blocking in the wall that was rough sawn oak. I have written about wood and my speculation of it’s origin before.
To the untrained eye, this would have been tossed out with all of the other debris. It is too short to re-use anywhere. It is still full of nails and has a sizable knot on one edge. But I saw something different.
I first noticed that is rough sawn. That is why I set it aside to look at it later. Then I noticed that it is a true 2″ piece of dimensional lumber. After I pulled the nails out, I started to notice the saw markings. If you look closely, one face is cut with a circular saw (those are the curved lines) and the other face was cut with a band saw (indicated by vertical lines).
Now, I am going to jump around a bit as I do to eventually get to a point (you can feel like you are getting a Malcom Gladwell experience here). In 2015, we wanted to paint the house. While attempting to do some rot repair, we found that the house was constructed in an unusual way. That led to adding new siding. After everything was completed, we were paid a visit by a former owner (Lloyd) who brought us a handful of pictures and a couple hours of stories as it was from the 1960’s when he purchased the house.
Over the years, we have had a number of run-ins with people that are connected to this house. It first started in 2005 (our first year here) when we had a garage sale. Some people that stopped by said that their grandparents lived here and that they used to stay here in the summertime in the 1950’s as children. Everybody knows this house, it is a big, blue Victorian at the top of the hill on Main St.
It seems as though the history of the house is uncertain. The county list the date as 1893. Former owner’s claim that is when records began and that this house dates back to 1873. Further, stories allege that this was the original homestead in the area, with all the lumber from the site. Now, we are starting to circle back to wood.
Let us assume that the rough sawn board on the left is from this site. I counted the growth rings on that board as 36 from what I could see. Not knowing the ultimate size of the tree, a person could speculate that tree was at least growing in the 1850’s (1893 – 36 = 1857).
The board on the right is definitely from this site because I milled it in 2006. When I cut down the fir tree, it had 56 rings making it planted in 1950. The history of the house in that period is much more certain.
Lloyd tells a story that he was living in an old farm house across the street. He was noticed that it was empty and went to inquire about the future of the house. The city considered it a nuisance house (it was previously spit into college apartments) and was going to tear it down, so Lloyd purchased the house. I guess you could say that Lloyd saved the house, but somewhat killed it at the same time because the house was stripped to the framing both inside and out.
The lap siding was replaced with T1-11, the plaster gone, windows replaced, doors and Victorian decoration all gone. On the upside, we got a modern electrical service (200 amps) and insulation and a new lease on life. We heard about how he ceded a portion of the property in back so that the neighbor had a lot size big enough to build a house. We heard about how the other neighbor built the fence on our side of the property line. All-in-all, it was an extremely interesting and surprising visit.
At this point, no one fully knows what was happening on this property in the 1850’s. The town was incorporated in 1859, the same year as the state. One of my future goals is to look at historical pictures and see if I can discern any truth about the origin of the house, including architectural details. I have seen some aerial photographs taken from a balloon that date to the 1880s, but they always orient toward the city center, which is to say away from this house.
There have been numerous changes in the town landmarks over the years. Houses have been moved, rails were removed, even the highway was moved in World War II to accommodate for an army base down the road. It will take a keen eye and thoughtful mind to reconstruct the past, but it sounds like fun.
‘Gun guys’ are acutely aware of the history and politics of firearms. I am probably a gun guy, but I am too young for some of the most pivotal moments in recent history. I will summarize in layman’s terms what I am talking about.
The Gun Control Act of 1968.
Firearms required a serial number on each unit
New firearms could only be sold through a dealer network although private party (used) sales were permitted
An official prohibited persons criteria was created
Imported firearms are prohibited, they must be assembled in the USA
The Gun Control Act of 1993
All new firearms have a mandatory background check
Five day minimum waiting period on new firearm purchases
All new manufacture of detachable magazines were limited to 10 round capacity
Stocks could not have a pistol grip
There has been lots of activity before during and after those two landmark points. But, today I don’t want to talk about laws so much as I want to talk about magazines. Magazines are arguably the most vulnerable part of a firearm from a legislation change as well as a functional point. In other words, the firearm is nearly worthless without a magazine (when designed to use one).
There are states today that limit magazine capacity. Fortunately, my state is not one of them (yet). However, I am convinced that it is a matter of time. There is an extreme left leaning agenda in today’s state government. There has already been talk of introducing such bills but the walk out prevented it this session.
My angle today is to buy magazines if you can. Many are available and reasonably priced. I try to have 5-10 magazines per firearm and I will give you some practical reasons why, not just hiding from the boogie man.
Magazines are mechanical. They foul, break and jam. They can be imperfect and cause functioning problems. If you don’t have more than one or two then you may not be able to determine malfunction issues. Without a magazine, the firearm is a single shot.
I like to have enough magazines to at least load a box of ammunition. That way I can spend time on the range shooting rather than loading magazines.
As I have stated above, laws can change regarding capacity or availability. There is nothing saying that new legislation will grandfather the ‘standard capacity magazine’ but why not have the option.
$10 magazine
I think that when you consider the investment in the cost of additional magazines, it also makes me want to be able to justify owning the firearm. So, for instance magazines for one firearm is $35 ea. I have more into the magazines than I actually do in the firearm itself. Since that one is used often, so I think it is justifiable.
Not all magazines are created equal. I really lean toward OEM manufacture even though considerable savings can be made buying aftermarket. The one exception is in the Military Specification (mil-spec) realm. Mil-spec means that things are made to a minimum specification and to work across platform or brand. In those cases, aftermarket may be considerably better than OEM. They can offer additional features like dust caps or sight windows or just better construction.
So, maybe Dad’s a shooter and you are not or you are one of the millions of new gun owners that has decided to take a step in your own wellbeing. These are the reasons I believe in having extra magazines around. I am looking forward to not working seven days a week and twelve hours a day so that I can get out to the range again.
Last night, I started a test to see if I could get non-hosted videos on this blog. Unfortunately, I have to upgrade packages to do so and I know that this is not the final home of this blog, so I am not going to invest in that at the moment.
In lieu of doing something new, I will summarize where I am at on this current project. I am in the punchlist phase. That means that I am essentially done with my work in the apartment minus a few things here and there. I still need to
Hang a ceiling fan
Install some window film to obscure direct view – waiting for delivery
Build a face frame for the microwave cabinet
Oversee cabinet painting and final ceiling touch-up – waiting for paint
sub floor patching
Install the baseboard molding – waiting for floor
Move in and install the appliances – waiting for floor
As you can see, the bathroom is a long way from being done. I would estimate two weeks of solid work. I will be doing the roofing when the framing is done. And I am waiting for the framing to be done so I can finish the siding and painting.
It has been said that some businesses have excellent return policies. These companies have come to mind Costco, Nordstrom and Amazon. Other companies offer no excuse, 100% lifetime warranties like Orvis and Lands End. That is a different criteria but an example of the breadth of differences with companies and products.
A few years ago, I needed some new shoes for an upcoming half marathon. This was a time when I was working a lot and shoes are a very personal thing. It seems like some brands need some miles on them to become comfortable while others comfort fades. Some brands seem to comfortable for everyday wear and others never. It is very difficult to know with a store fitting and always somewhat of a gamble.
It was late in the evening, like nine PM and I couldn’t decide. I was persuaded to get both, run in both and return the ones I didn’t like. I did, and I hated myself the whole time. I didn’t think that running in shoes for a week and returning them was the right thing to do. What happens to those shoes? Are they sold as new again?
Recently I bought some roof jacks from a home center. I was in a hurry when I grabbed them and they looked a little scuffed up. Overall, no big deal. When I got home and looked at them more carefully, I could clearly see signs that these had been used and returned. The scrape patter of sliding on shingles, the nail marks from where they were fastened, the tar from shingle contact, etc.
Now, these are items that will last a lifetime, especially at my usage level. There really is no harm in them being used, and obviously lightly. But, it got me thinking of the psychology of someone using something and then returning it (again).
I have bought the ‘open package’ before and low and behold it was missing some critical component. I just dont know if the missing part was removed or carelessly not returned. With today’s customer service at stores, their only real recourse is to replace the entire contents rather than make it whole which is another hassle. So, I have become a person that avoids obviously opened packaged because I have been burned by the consequences too many times.
See my post about Amazon Warehouse. They clearly did not inspect the item as the policy states or they would have known that they did not even get the same part back.
On my current project, I mistakenly bought 5lbs of 3 1/2″ box nails instead of sinkers. I didn’t even notice for weeks because I was working out of another source. I hadnt even opened them but I was going to refill my working container and noticed that they were the wrong type. So, I returned them because I can never see myself using those nails (in that quantity). In that case, the package was unopened and as new.
So, I get down to the fundamental question. Who’s fault is it when something clearly used is sold on a store shelf? Is it the returner who treats the item as a loaner? It is the store who is unable/unwilling to make a judgement on accepting items for return and by the same turn resells used items as new? Or is the consumer who expects that everything is new including the price?
Not surprisingly, I think a little bit of all three. It first starts with ethics. If a store’s policy and practice are to accept all items, regardless of condition then that is OK. To try and return the item in as un-used is not. If the store wants to resell used items, that is OK. I would like a discount (or at least a warning so that I pay more attention to the selection). The consumer should not mindlessly grab and go if these factors are important.
Multiple times, I have grabbed items from the same bin which turned out to be different. Things like pipe fittings and cabinet hardware come to mind. I now pay a lot more attention to make sure that I getting what I think that I am getting. I would like to point out that this seems to be much less so at the small hardware stores. Not only is the customer service more personal, they know their inventory and do a better job making sure things are in the right place. They also tend to have much less inventory which makes a different sized pipe fitting stand out much easier.
In the end, I just want to know that some items could be used and I will decide whether I want to shop there or purchase there.
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