Month: January 2026

January 30, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 1, Chapters 3-4

January 30, 2026 /

Alright, alright, alright as Matthew McConaughey would say. I am starting to get into this book a bit. Chapter Three examines hot beds of excellence and Chapter Four is about how to get the benefit of deep practice. This is both the facts and the myths about what we think we believe about life if we are paying attention.

Coyle starts off chapter Three with the Bronte sisters. Now, I am pretty well read including a lot of the classics but I had never read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or heard of the likes of any one of the three Bronte sisters. I recognize the titles and I am peripherally aware that they are considered amongst the best literature. I guess I always perceived them as a little too feminine for me. Even though I will admit I don’t know anything about the plot so I could be dead wrong.

That being said, Coyle asserts that they became great authors by starting out writing quasi-nonsense. Poor spelling, poor sentence structure, poor punctuation and stories that were almost plagiarized from popular magazines is where the development of greatness occurred. This is the attack on the gene theory that some people are simply born great and hence three sisters are the best authors of the mid 19th century.

It would seem like nurture has a much stronger connection to greatness then nature. Renaissance masters were connected to each other via apprentice to master and master to master within the Florentine guild structure. I suspect that this is why college athletes are frequently from the same high school. Professional athletes are often from the same colleges. The athletes are in proximity to deep practice.

Recently Indiana beat Miami for the college football championship. It was said that prior to two years ago, Indiana was the losingest Division I football team in history. I can bet you that at the beginning of last year the new coach did not go out and replace the entire team. No, he worked with what he had. This year’s success will certainly make it easier for Indiana to remain on top with better recruiting and retaining top talent, but what shifted was mindset.

Nobody thought that a 3-9 team in 2023-4 would become an 11-2 team in 2024-5. In fact, when it came to playoff selection, they were deemed a fluke, had a soft schedule and not really worthy. Yes, they did lose their one playoff game to Notre Dame who went on to play in the championship against Ohio State (Indiana’s other loss on the year). You might say that they probably earned a number three ranking for 2025 based on those results. This team stayed together and became a juggernaut. The way they dismantled Oregon in the semi-finals was embarrassing for all of my Ducks fans (I only accept family in that category). Not used to losing badly like my Beavers, most of them gave up by halftime.

I strongly suspect that Coach Cignetti has unlocked the ‘Talent Code’ at Indiana. I wish that I could say that about my team’s coaches. Enough of football though, Chapter Four are the three elements of deep practice. They are chunk it up, repeat it and feel it. I will explain.

To chunk it up, you have to look at the whole picture and figure out where logical breaks can occur. Then you set about mastering any one of the chunks, that is the repeat part. Once you master a chunk you move on and combine the chunks, that is the feel it. It is that kind of thing where when you are right handed and you try to do something with your left hand.

I have tried this with several things like batting, shooting and writing. The first time is comically awkward. Then after hundreds of repetitions, it starts to feel normal. Keep practicing after that and all of a sudden, it is not just natural but intuitive. I sometimes try experiments like that when I am struggling because of bad habits. My logic is that if I relearn it on my other side I can start fresh and hopefully get away from the limitations I have on my primary hand.

While reading this book it has started to occur to me that there is a reason why I was a mediocre to poor high school athlete, musician andcollege student. I always thought that my super power was never give up. Sure, I would outlast the people that would give up and if I stayed long enough I would be the longest tenured and probably the best in comparison. But in those areas, I never did deep practice following the three rules.

But when I look at my success in other areas like leadership, I kind of do that intuitively. I am always more successful when I am allowed to to see the whole picture and I pretty much flail when I only have a myopic understanding. It leads me to speculate on the order or importance of certain aspects.

It is the reason that I always write with so much context. I want the reader to understand the why this thing is so important. Sometimes I even look at my podcast notes and wonder if I have put enough emphasis on the topic over the context. The punchline can sometimes be so subtle that it gets lost in the story. I should work on that but I see why this works for me. It is my talent code process.

End Your Programming Routine: I am glad to find out that we are strictly bound by our genes to our destiny. Yes, I will never be an NBA player and I have come to terms with that but it doesn’t mean that I could be the best at 95% of other things in life. I think I would rather be the best steelhead fisherman than and NBA star anyway. Next week, we will cover all of Part Two.

January 29, 2026 – Is This Where My Heart Is?

January 29, 2026 /

If you were to ask me six months ago about where I would lay my head, never in 100 years would I have said the central Oregon Coast. It was about that time that I was watching the show Port Protection and I was wondering if I could convince my wife to move to coastal Alaska. I didn’t think she would go for the isolation. My dream is more the mountain west with mountains, livestock and cowboy boots not rain gear and rubber boots anyway.

We were coming home last week and my wife said, “it is time”. I said, “what do you mean”? She said the lake house feels more like home then our current home. After sleeping three nights on an air mattress, I was ready to get back to our true home. But a lot of that is only because I have no stuff there, the house is cold and I had a lot of problems with my work computer that I suspect is related to our makeshift internet situation. I am in no hurry to move but I am getting kind of tired of living out of boxes.

As this thing drags on, it is getting more and more real. Each weekend, I spend time boxing, organizing, trashing, donating and recycling. I sold my woodworking pile of wood two weeks ago, now I have next to nothing. As I go through all of my sheet goods off cuts, each one has a story. That one was from my Grandpa’s ice table. That was from the soffit that I replaced. That was the ottoman I built in SC. There was a piece of T-111 that I took off of the house when I fixed some rotten spots prior to residing. It goes on and on but if they are too small, they get cut up and thrown away.

My son and I took my last range trip for my birthday. Not only could I not find ammo to go, but when we got back, I couldn’t find my cleaning supplies either. I have a universal kit that I keep with my hunting bag, but I ran through all of the supplies that it contained. I have a bulk bag of patches somewhere along with other parts that I want, but for the life of me, I don’t know where it is right now and I am surely not going to move all the boxes around to find it.

I guess when I started packing, it didn’t occur to me how long I might be in the situation of getting ready versus actually moving. I can’t afford to sit around and wait for certainty, I will actually be out of time. The thought does cross my mind, what if this falls through? The cabinets I gave away, the shelves I broke down, all of those things in boxes have to get put back? It is kind of overwhelming and motivating at the same time. This can’t all be for nothing.

The picture above is Friday night sunset at our closest beach, about two miles from the house. It has been a beautiful run of weeks at the beach. It is clear and cold with an arctic wind blowing. We felt sorry for the dog being cooped up all day and thought this would be a nice ending to a long week. So did a hundred other people that you can’t see behind me.

I think that there is a metaphor there. I am sunsetting my time at my current home. I couldn’t have been more fortunate to have a warm house, a shop, a nice yard and loving family that has arrived, blossomed and has now left. My memories are like the day this photo was taken, bright and sunny. Even if there is now a freezing wind blowing, this is still is a moment to be savored. If I really boil things down, I am not wishing that it stays twilight forever, it is just inevitable that the night will come. Fortunately, a new dawn will be coming tomorrow.

I will never be ready to call the lake house home, until it happens. There is always something that will need to be done here and I feel like I owe my heart that. But, it will happen and it will happen when we actually complete the move.

End Your Programming Routine: Since we were going to stay into the weekend with a clear forecast, I was going to take my takedown fishing pole. Guess what, I couldn’t find it. It must be boxed up somewhere. Yes, I should just take a regular fishing pole which I know where it is but that is illustrative. While I may not call the lake house home yet, it feels like it is time to get this show on the road.

January 28, 2026 – Gotta Use Your Noggin

January 28, 2026 /

So, the war is on. We were at the lake house last week for our longest stint ever, three days. We were there primarily because we had the house inspection and Radon test. I was willing to come back so that the tester could pick up the Radon module after two days but my wife wanted to stay.

One of the things that the inspector asked was if there were any concerns. I said that the heating is absolutely inadequate. My wife and I actually were discussing about purchasing and replacing one of the wall heaters the previous night. One of the heaters I could put my hand on the metal grate while it was running for as long as I wanted. It was warm, but that was it. The other heater I could hold my hand about an inch from the metal grate for about two seconds before it was too hot.

I was also interested in the electrical panel to see if there was any space if we do want to add a mini split. Maybe we will resize the heaters? I don’t know for sure but I will say that it takes 24 hours before the downstairs living space is comfortable. One of the thoughts we had was to turn on the ceiling fans in reverse. That is supposed to help keep the heat from moving upstairs.

I didn’t have a ladder so I climbed up on one of the few pieces of furniture that we had, a bar stool. I didn’t have enough height to see on top of the fan base but I felt around and I could not find anything. On the list for the next trip was a ladder. Only the cheapest of ceiling fans cannot be reversed. Ask me how I know but these had remotes and different light hues and fan speeds. I found it hard to believe that there was no reverse switch.

On Saturday, we were working on a puzzle and really just killing time until the Radon test was picked up so that we could leave. This was my time to get busy with the ladder. On the first fan, I plopped the ladder down, climbed up and the switch was right in front of me; fan reversed. I was excited that in five minutes I would be back to the puzzle.

I move to the second fan and I don’t see a switch. I checked three different angles on the fan base. Then my wife wanted to see. She said, “here is the hole where it is supposed to be”. I said “what”? I still couldn’t see it. Once I got through the paradigm that the switch wasn’t there, I missed it because I was looking for something raised, not a hole She was underneath the fan and said that it looks different than the other fans. We did some bickering about why I could not see the hole and I reluctantly agreed to take the fan down and see what I could see.

Ceiling fans are job that I don’t like doing. These things are heavy and awkward. More so than this, it really is not my place to be taking down someone else’s fan to see if I could determine what is wrong. But I did it anyway. When I got the fan off the ceiling, I could definitely see the hole. I stuck the flashlight in the hole and I couldn’t see a switch anywhere. I reluctantly agreed that I would take the fan apart further to see if I could determine the problem.

Once I got the upper housing off, I could see that it was installed about 120 degrees from the switch. Hence, the switch was underneath the housing but not visible or accessible. Once I got thing put back together the way they were supposed to be, I begin to wonder how this was possible. This had to have been built incorrectly in the first place.

The escutcheon was painted to the ceiling. It is possible that this was a homeowner installation, but based on the fact that the previous owners only lived in the house three years, there has already been a major remodel and there are some other electrical oddities, I suspect that this is exactly the way it was installed. Before I am too hard on the installer, I can’t say that I would have noticed this problem either. I strongly believe this is how the fan was built as the fan cover is not a typical user installed part.

End Your Programming Routine: Because we had already been at the house for three days with the heat blasting the whole time, it is hard to say if the fans actually helped. It also makes me wonder if I should pull apart the heater that is only kind of working. I will probably do that while we are here this week. I would have never have guessed that something made incorrectly, installed an used but never noticed the problem would be the case.

January 27, 2026 – What is Radon?

January 27, 2026 /

It’s been a long time since I have gone total science. I will keep it really high level today since I know that most of you first won’t care and second probably don’t have the chemistry background to truly understand. But, I will do the best I can to keep it approachable. I think the Wikipedia article is pretty good if you want to go deeper into this.

You have for surely heard of Helium and Neon they are elements arranged on the farthest right hand column of the periodic table. Because their elemental properties are all similar, they get the nickname ‘noble gases’. A noble gas is an element that is very non-reactive due to its atomic structure. Radon is also a noble gas.

That is not all of the story. Being non-reactive doesn’t mean that elements live in perpetuity. There is something called a half life and it is what it seems. It is the time that it takes for half of the total molecules to degrade into something else. We typically refer to that as radioactivity. The farther down the column you go of noble gases the shorter the half life or the more radioactive they are.

Even though Radon is very stable from a reaction standpoint, the half life is only a couple of days. What that ultimately means is half of Radon becomes another element (radioactive Polonium) in a couple of days. Further to that, the half life of Polonium is only three minutes until it becomes radioactive lead. This continues for twenty some years until that Radon becomes elemental lead and is considered safe.

Where does this Radon come from? Believe it or not, Radon starts off as Uranium in the soil. I think that we are all aware that Uranium is radioactive. That is what the bombs are made of, it is what powers the reactors for energy. Is it any surprise then that it decays into Radon for a short period of time? I will spare all the breakdown beginning at Uranium since I can sense I have pushed things to the edge already.

Don’t be scared, this has been happening since the beginning of time. It’s here and we just don’t know it. Since radioactive elements have a habit of increasing cancer risk, it is definitely something that would be best avoided for prolonged exposure. The worst part about it is that when we build homes, we trap the natural air and put ourselves in the middle of a concentrating environment.

We didn’t choose to have a radon test. It is certainly something I have wondered about throughout the years but you know how things go, out of sight, out of mind. Looking at the projected maps, I was a little uncertain about how we would fair with the testing and ultimately would prefer not to spend money on a mitigation system. But that would not be the case. The main house was fine but the ADU got a result above the action level.

You should know that radon testing is not required and neither is doing something with the readings in Oregon. Strictly speaking, we could have ignored things but my wife wanted to act. Putting in a mitigation system was not terrible. I am pretty sure that there is a lot of margin in the work, four hours, six inch PVC pipe and elbows and an inline fan makes $2500 look like a pretty good living. That cost also included a retest, a $200 value.

The way mitigation works is that it starts with coring a hole in the slab. A pipe is placed in the hole and any gaps are sealed. From there the pipe is directed outside. Add an inline fan and you are done. The principle is that the fan is going to suck on whatever ground is under the slab and the air that comes up is going to be blown into the atmosphere. Testing is done in the living space.

This by the way is the same type of mitigation that is also done with dry cleaner or fuel contaminated soils in a place that cannot be dug out. For several years I did this kind of work on superfund sites. In those cases, the plume can move underground with the winds so to speak. Our job was to map and monitor what that plume looked like via test results.

I could tell that something was happening because there has been a distinctive stale grease and mustiness smell when I walk in the door. We have not cleaned the place up since the tenant moved out other than some really high level sweeping. It really is not required for selling a house, the standard is reasonably clean. I have done it plenty with every tenant turnover so I am taking advantage of not having to do it. After the fan was installed, the place smelled much better.

After running the fan for a week, the retest was started. Since we were just barely above the action level in the first place, I am not surprise in the least the testing showed that we had half of the amount of radon than we did before mitigation. You would call this a success.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not here to say that Radon is not a problem. In our house, we should definitely look at any kind of weird and foreign potential causes of disease. I will say that I am a little bit skeptical that it is something to worry a lot about especially when right at the action level. If the potential buyers were never to wanted the test, we would have never known.

January 26, 2025 – A Starter Home Tool Kit

January 26, 2026 /

Before you go to the supercenter and plunk down $50 on a substandard tool kit, consider spending twice that amount and get the tools that you will actually need and last a lifetime. Heck, buy a couple each month if budget is a concern. I give recommendations on where to shop, what to get and how to feel confident in the tools that you do have rather than a kit that never gets opened. You might find that you actually get into it, like me but at least you will have something that someone can help you if the need arises.

January 23, 2026 – The Talent Code: Part 1, Chapters 1-2

January 23, 2026 /

Admittedly, I did not know anything about this book before I purchased it. It came from a co-worker recommendation a couple of years ago. If I remember this conversation correctly, I was telling him about my former position at another company. I believe that he said something like, you should read this book that I just read. I wrote the title down and then I just waited until I had some time to fit it into my reading.

Honestly, I was expecting the book to be about techniques to get the best out of people as a leader using teambuilding skills. At least, that is the conversation I was having with my co-worker. I didn’t even read the dust jacket and just jumped into reading the book. To my surprise, it has nothing to do with that. The book is all about how the individual masters skills.

Because I was expecting something different, I was puzzled when I read the introduction. What do high performance teams have to do with a middle schooler practicing the clarinet? It is no surprise there, nothing really. OK, I am going to change my paradigm now, we are going to get educated on how to learn skills well. This is up my alley.

This is going to sound a little spacy but Coyle’s assertion is that the way we master skills is by something called deep practice. That act of deep practice in turn causes a bio-chemical reaction for the body to build a compound called myelin. This is the material that wraps nerve fiber. The more the deep practice, the thicker the myelin gets. This then causes the message transmissions to become faster and more precise. That is mastery.

The phrase deep practice has a specific implication. Deep practice is the act of working until a mistake is made, stopping and analyzing the problem and starting again at that point. Coyle uses a word exercise to try and prove a point. If you struggle with something then you are more likely to recall it and in turn master it. The list of words that he provided with missing letters was more memorable then the list where everything was filled out.

Coyle’s also asserts that there is a phenomenon out there that seems to line up with the theory anyway. Why do so many major league baseball players come from the Dominican Republic? It is because the culture has mastered deep practice when it comes to baseball. They are not a super race of baseball phenoms and certainly pound for pound when you look at Olympic medal totals it not because of genetic athleticism and deep population pools.

He also maintains that poorer demographics are more likely to use deep practice because they don’t really have any other options. They are less likely to have analytics and coaching, not discounting those things but they are making mistakes and learning from them which is what then leads to greatness.

If that is then true, I am reminded of several misguided coaches that I have had over the years. They boldly assert that the phrase “practice makes perfect” is wrong. It should be “perfect practice makes perfect” when in reality the first statement is actually more true. Someone cannot get to perfect practice without practice. And it should also be noted that using this theory, repetition holds no value. If you are not trying to do it faster or better or some other variation then likely you are actually repeating the same mistakes in your ‘perfect’ repetition.

Another novelty to me is the 10,000 hours theory does not play a role but not as big as you would think. Remember that is that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. But, combine Deep practice with 10,000 hours and you will be a master. That make sense for me because when I think about certain things like reading, sometimes I have a difficult time remembering what I read. I am sure that I have probably read that many hours in my lifetime and yet that information is only temporarily available. It goes into my brain and then six months later I would have to read the book again to even know what that is about.

And yet, I think that I am a pretty good programmer. I struggled and struggled to get it. After months of debugging I sometimes found that the program did not work like it should. Things that technically were correct did not execute in ways that they were supposed to. I learned from that particularly to be a better programmer and test my work in smaller chunks to the point that I didn’t need to do that anymore because I had mastered the nuance.

End Your Programming Routine: Despite the fact that this is not the book I was thinking that it was going to be, I actually think that it might be better than that. Sometimes, things that matter are comfortable and familiar, but sometimes they are stretching us and making us better. While a business book is interesting, this may not be the right forum. Next week, we will cover chapters 3 and 4.

January 22, 2024 – Small Engine Maintenance

January 22, 2026 /

If you are like me (probably not) then you don’t do your own yard maintenance. I never grew up with a silver spoon and my parents still do all of their own yard work. It was really hard for me to consider paying someone when I had the ability to do the work, and in some cases, desire as well. That being said, I was travelling a lot for work and I simply could not keep up. It was well worth the cost considering how much they can do in the time versus myself.

I have gone through a couple of cycles. I had everything that I needed like lawnmower, trimmer, etc. Then after a couple of years I slowly gave stuff away until I had nothing. But, when I quit my job I needed to take over that task for financial reasons. Fortunately, an uncle gave my son a lawnmower so that he could build his financial empire and he wasn’t using it, so I did. Then, my father-in-law died and I refilled my shed with the things that were missing.

We still have someone doing the yard but at the lake house, not so much. Each trip I have been hauling over yard equipment. I started mowing the grass but I could not get the edges so then I brought over the trimmer. The beach brings a lot of higher wind and now I have a lot of evergreen debris on the driveway and deck so I am bringing over my blower.

If you have ever tried to start a lawnmower after sitting for five years, you might be surprised as how much work is involved. Fortunately for me, I have been in the habit of running gas engines out of fuel when I am uncertain about the future. But, I gassed the mower up and pulled and pulled to no avail. A small engine’s best friend is a can of starter fluid, sometimes called ether. I sprayed a good shot into the carburetor and viola, it started.

Tune up kits can be purchased relatively inexpensively. They typically contain a spark plug, air filter and sometimes a quart of oil or some fuel filters or primer bulbs and tubing depending on what engine it is. What I have heard is that lawnmowers should have the oil changed once a year along with the blade sharpened. Spark plugs and filters are optional if they look plugged or black. You can bet that I haven’t done it in five years, if ever. So, that is on the future agenda for the mower.

I also had to use the starter fluid to get the trimmer going. It had an additional problem that the priming bulb cracked as I was pushing on it. The second picture is the new bulb installed and I also changed the filter and spark plug. I did this because the filter was pretty clogged and those items came with the tune-up kit. Now that is up and going again.

I haven’t been able to get the blower started yet. I think all it probably needs is a shot of starter fluid. However, it seems like my son helped himself to the bottle that I had here and so this will become another unknown project until I get to the beach. Even though it is cheap, I really do not want another thing to move considering I use it very infrequently in the first place. One can will last me for years, two would almost be a lifetime.

Our yard is small. I can mow all the grass in about twenty minutes. I think that when we do move, our days of yard service will be over. That will save a couple of hundred dollars a month. It will be important to get these things going and keep them going. One thing that I do now is only use ethanol free premium. The previous homeowners left a couple of full gas cans for the generator. I suspect that those are not ethanol free. So, it is what I have used for the mower to date but once that is gone, it won’t be.

Side note here. Gasoline should be rotated. So, if we do not run the generator extensively and I have gotten several mows from a partial tank of gas, the gasoline in the the cans will sit for a long time, possibly years. What I do is pour the fuel in my car after a year and then take the can to the filling station for the car and the can. This ensures fresh fuel is always stored.

I learned the ethanol free trick years ago. I had the lower grade gas destroy my gas line in my chain saw. I suspect that it was also the culprit for the primer bulb in the trimmer. Aside from starting the trimmer, I have never used it. Most people won’t go to the cost and effort to get ethanol free gas. It’s not like I can ask my father-in-law. In summary, ethanol damages the rubber or whatever the plastic parts are made of.

Side note two. Ethanol is water soluble. If your gas has ethanol then likely it will also have water if it sits around long enough. Fuel additives called stabilizers help prevent that as well as replace the lightest components that tend to evaporate over time. If you are not going to use ethanol free gas, you should highly consider using a stabilizer product. Regardless of stabilizer, I think the ethanol is going to attack the plastic.

You would think that ethanol is the only problem for small engines but it is not. Sunlight degrades the plastic parts as well. What I mean is that there is no such thing as a small engine that does not require maintenance at some point. This seems like a good opportunity to make some short videos or at least articles so look for more of these as I get things going again.

End Your Programming Routine: You know what else doesn’t help? My bad neck and shoulder. Pulling on those starters leads to pain. The easier I can start things and the better they run makes life a lot better for me. I want to offer some encouragement, I don’t know a lot about these things either. But, you can try some simple things like starter fluid and tune-up kits and probably get things going again.

January 21, 2026 – Selling Stuff Sucks

January 21, 2026 /

I know that I have threatened to sell things in the past. By all accounts, I should have gotten off the stick and got to work. But, in the process of moving, I came to the realization that there are things that I really don’t need to move, like this stack of canning jars. I don’t need to move them because I don’t really need them. With just two of us in the house, six dozen quart jars is plain overkill.

My wife has also been on me sell my lumber pile. That too I do not want to move, but I also don’t want to get rid of all of it either. Woodworking lumber can be very expensive and I literally have thousands of dollars worth of it that I am selling at 10% of its value. Nevertheless, I set about on my first, recent experience with selling items on-line.

You could probably label me as an old fogey. When I think online classifieds, I think Craigslist. But, all I hear is that Craigslist is dead. I don’t know, not only do I really not sell things, I don’t really buy things either. I set about putting an add in Craigslist, Nextdoor and gasp Facebook. I broke my personal ethos and made my first ever Facebook post (on Marketplace).

I am no rube, I know how to sell things. Marketing, pricing and potentially negotiation are all involved. I took a spin around the market to see what jars are going for. I also looked at new jars and I knew that I wanted to sell all of them as a lot. A dozen jars go for $15 at the store, I thought that I would sell the entire six for $40. That was a even amount that I wouldn’t have to make change for. Don’t even get me started about electronic money.

I could not believe the response that I got. The very first night, someone emailed me, so I assume that must have been a Craigslist hit. We arranged that she would come tomorrow and pick up the jars. Well, I waited and then I waited, no show. Her email actually had her phone number in it but I just stewed.

While I was waiting, I checked Facebook Messenger, I had eight other buyers. I was certain that I was going to complete the transaction that night so I responded to all the potentials that there was a sale in progress. When that person did not show up, I went back to all of those messages in chronological order. The first person only wanted the wide mouth jars, the second person wanted to offer $36, the third person offered $30. I said no to all of those people. The forth person responded immediately when I said I was in talks, they also asked if I had anything else. This was the one.

Not only was I a little overwhelmed by the number of offers and the amount of communication that was required but I was working around two different house showings that weekend. Then I got several offers off of Nextdoor. Now, I had to include that platform in the communication loop. This process spanned from Thursday into mid-Sunday afternoon. I won’t lie, I questioned whether this was actually worth the money. Throwing the jars away would be so much easier and then this would be over.

In the end, the jars went to the right person I feel like. They wanted them, they didn’t hassle me on price, in fact they said this was a good deal and so they recognized the value. They communicated and I am sure that they were going to use them. I think that is why it was worth my effort. It would have been easier and possibly cheaper to throw them away but that would also be wasteful.

I am going to have to go back and revamp my wood listing. I need to get all of the stuff cleared off the pile and take a few more pictures. Because I was under pressure from my wife to get it listed, I did the minimal amount of prep. In all of the house selling and jar selling chaos, I missed out on some timely communication with potential buyers. The wood is also priced to sell but it will be more than pocket money.

I also didn’t realize how much woodworking wood was out there for sale. When I did my initial research, I was seeing prices of $10 a board foot for Douglas Fir from lumber suppliers. But, I see it on Facebook Marketplace at $1 per board food. I priced mine at half of that but I may need to re-evaluate things now that I have a better feel for the market. I am still not giving it away, if I do it will be to my neighbor who will burn it. They have done a lot for me over the years and I don’t feel bad about that.

End Your Programming Routine: I have learned that I don’t get a lot of charge out of selling things online. It is why I have things I would like to get rid of but have not done it. The chairs I talked about a couple of years ago, shotgun barrels, things that all have value. I probably need to focus on one thing at a time and possibly one platform if I am going to be successful at this. I am happy that I am not bombarded with messages at the moment.

January 20, 2026 – There Outta Be a Better Way

January 20, 2026 /

I admit it, I am frugal. That is one way of saying that I really despise waste. A standard construction tube of caulking often contains way more material then a typical home owner project will use at one time. So the remainder of the tube becomes waste if it sits around too long.

I have tried every trick in the book to preserve the life of caulk tube remnants. I have put electrical tape over the nozzle. I have tried to embed nails and screws so that there is a channel when I come back to it. I have cut the nozzle shorter to pull the plug of dried caulk out. I have used large, screw on electrical connectors to act as a cap. They all suck.

Caulking is a love hate relationship. You want to believe that it is an ideal solution to a less than ideal situation. That being said, I find about a five year or less life with it in an outdoor application. My personal preference is to use as little as possible because if you are at the point where your hopes are on caulk, you are waiting to fail.

Certain projects typically can use quite a bit of caulk. I am thinking back to siding replacement I did a couple of years ago. In those cases, it seemed like I was going through it as fast as I could blink. But, because I despise waste, I want to make sure that I am purchasing the exact amount I need. Caulk will even dry up in an unopened tube and when you only use a squirt at a time, it doesn’t pay to keep it around.

Recently, I was doing a quick cleaning to get ready for a house showing. I hadn’t really spent any time in the apartment since the tenant moved out. It looked like it was in the need of TLC and when I looked at the vanity, I could see a gap between the top and the tile backsplash. I can’t remember if I ever mentioned this but we had to replace the entire floor a couple of years ago. The shower had leaked and it had rotted the structure. So, the vanity had to be removed and I suspect it shrank.

I thought that I would just quickly put a bead down. The more I can spruce up, the better the chances the buyer will be wowed, or at least not turned off. I had an open tube of kitchen/bath caulk. The best application for this is 100% silicone, that is not wholly important other than to say it is not water based. It requires mineral spirits to clean up.

In fact, I had two tubes. One was clear and the other is white, see picture above. The clear one had clearly given up the ghost. I determine that by forcing a nail into the small opening at the nozzle. If and when I pull the nail out and I get some still wet material, then I consider the tube viable. I would then set about trying to get at the good material.

The clear was clearly dried out, but the white was not. So, I set about poking and squeezing until it was flowing. If I can get away with it, I will cut half the nozzle off but that amount of opening causes a very wide bead. That tactic is not really suitable for a for a bath job unless you are OK with it all over the place. I was not.

Twenty minutes of poking and cleaning my hands and tools off with mineral spirits, I finally got it to flow at an adequate rate. Believe me, more than once I had this thought that I am spending way more money in time than just going to purchase a replacement tube. The nagging problem in my head is that this perpetuates the cycle all over again. I had to get it done quickly because I had 30 minutes before the showing so I persisted. Fortunately, I felt like the smell of bleach that I poured around the shower to try and subdue the mildew significantly overwhelmed the pungent, vinegary smell of silicone caulk or the petroleum smell of ‘Odorless’ Mineral Spirits.

The job got done and I screwed the electrical wire nut back on the nozzle. I know full well that the next time I want to do something like this again that this tube is likely shot at 3/4 full. I was lucky to get a second project out of this one as it is.

End Your Programming Routine: I used to keep a small tube of hand squeezable caulk. However, it also dried up. Just like we are buying half gallons of milk now, these things can almost cost as much as a standard tube. But, at least there is not so much waste. Now that we are moving to a newer house, I am expecting less home improvement projects. Maybe it is time to go back to the smaller tube?

January 19, 2026 – The Truth is In the Middle

January 19, 2026 /

You might have been wondering where I am at such a polarizing time. That time has come. I comment on the Minneapolis, ICE shooting that occurred a couple of weeks ago. I also talk about history and how events of the Boston Massacre relate to this and what I think you should do about it, if anything. Remember, we should be doing what matters. Consider my words but keep on doing things that matter for the proper perspective.