Author: bhayes952

May 3, 2022 – Knowing When to Say Uncle

May 3, 2022 /

I come from a long line of never give up, I can do it men. It kills me to pay for something that I can do. But, it is a matter of my time and what I can do (efficiently). For years our fence has been in poor shape and inexplicably part of it fell down last week.

This is a topic that has been coming up about once a year for the last five years or so. My neighbor has done a lot of shoring up in that period. The truth is, he is the cause of much of the damage anyway as there is a lot of weight against the fence so he has a vested interest in keeping it functional. There are wires anchoring it to trees and sistered posts. This is all on his side, so I cant see it.

In fact, I had spoken to him about a month ago that we planned to replace the fence this summer. I wanted to get a rough lumber cost to see if I wanted to do the job or not. After I saw it was $6 a fence board, I was hoping it would last another year. But, now that the fence has fallen down, we need to get it repaired quickly.

We are looking at getting five bids (still waiting for the first one however). What I can say is that five different people showed up to take measurements. Almost all of them we have some kind of affiliation with. Even so, I was surprised to get attention and action so quickly. Maybe it is the season is still slow or maybe things have cooled down quickly? I can’t really say.

The heart of what I am trying to get at is that while I can do it, I cannot do everything. We have a trip planned for Spain after school is out and I have another problem (project) that I will talk about tomorrow. In addition, with all of the family activities and business travel plus we need to keep our animals in the yard as well as the neighbors animal out. Plus, the weather is not great right now anyway.

Some times I do things because I want the experience. Other times I do things because they are in my wheel house and it is cheaper and faster for me to do them. Lastly, there are times when it is far more economic for me to do them because there is no real deadline. I know myself and my commitments and things always take significantly longer than I expect because I do not spend the time I would like doing the project. There is also the opposite opinion of what would you rather do?

With the price of materials, most of the cost is going to go to that. I have a feeling that labor is going to be a relatively small portion of the bid. There is also the factor that it will probably get done in a couple of days and I think all the debris will be removed. For me, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took all summer. If I had nothing else to do, I would love to do the job and save the labor cost. But the reality is I don’t really want to spend my entire summer doing this job.

The economics of the situation says in theory, if I can pay someone less than what I can earn with the same time, then possibly you save money. There is also the potential of having to buy single use tools and even skill deficits. I can’t use those excuses nor will I have another job to do instead of building a fence. I would say it is more that we need it done sooner rather than later. The truth is the adjacent fence has been broken for at least seven years as well. It has literally been sitting on the ground for years hanging on by a nail. So, it is time.

End Your Programming Routine: Maybe it is getting older and wiser or maybe it is becoming more confident that I am having a slight mindset shift. I would never consider paying someone to do something that I could do. But, since we have paid for yard maintenance, I have come to understand that I do things that I want to do rather than out of obligation. Hiring someone to replace the fence is not because I can’t but because I want to spend my time elsewhere.

May, 2 2022 – Speaking of Privacy Again…

May 2, 2022 /

***9-9-24: My web host called and said that the link to the Tor Browser was malware and that my site was infected. I have no way of actually knowing this is true so I have removed it from this post. I suspect that they wanted a way to try and sell me their security service at $400/yr. For now, search the tor browser for yourself and use at your own risk.***

I have been thinking about BitWarden and privacy this week. I have also been aware of the benefits of a Virtual Private Network but never looked into it. Combining those two things together got me looking around for what a VPN would cost and I stumbled on the Tor Browser.

Let’s go back to the basics, what is a Virtual Private Network or VPN for short? A VPN is a networking routing strategy where your computer goes to a specified computer address every time for the first connection. In theory, if someone was looking at your history they would only see a connection to a single IP address. To go along with that, your first jump would be to a server that is clean and secure and the people running it value privacy.

As far as I know, without a VPN your routing is somewhat random. Random but also potentially public. Even more insidious than that is that most browsers are reporting your searches to the parent owner of that browser. They then take that data and use it to develop more artificial intelligence and data trends. This is how you look up something and all of a sudden you are bombarded with adds for that particular item.

The more I think about it, the more certain I am that BitWarden is doing the same thing. I think that it is also worth pointing out that a VPN is not going to protect you from that type of tracking because of the browser extension is getting the data right from the source – you.

The Tor browser is a browser that has an integrated VPN function into the operation. It is open source and differs a little from the pay services. So, you are not paying for a service for all of your devices but activating the VPN function by using the browser. Why? Because there are still some good guys out there that believe in American values. People work on these projects because they are passionate about what we all think is true, we should own our own privacy.

In looking around a little it looks like Brave can do this too by changing the settings of the browser. As a side note, I don’t think Brave is actually tracking me but it does have the potential to be public. In fact, most browsers have a private mode. With that said, I don’t happen to believe that ABC or Microsoft has our best interest in mind however. Apple does seem to be more trustworthy with privacy but I don’t think for a second that they are just sitting on data that they are collecting.

Also, looking at how these things work they don’t save any history and certainly recommend not adding any extensions. To my knowledge, Tor is the only one that has an integrated VPN feature though.

I think it is pretty evident why privacy is important. But I think it is worth mentioning that context is important. People create their own realities when they only see part of the data. What if I was pricing a pallet of shotgun shells for my kids Trap club? That seems to be explainable. But what if I was looking for a kilo of cocaine? Who knows, maybe I wanted to look at the effects of inflation and I decide I cant make the correlation. Or what if I wanted to read Mein Kampf so I was looking to buy a copy? These things can easily be taken out of context or are even tools for entrapment. In the end, I am not doing anything technically wrong and it is none of your business.

End Your Programming Routine: I am going to keep using Brave but I am also going to try out Tor. There are some clear drawbacks to using it exclusively and one is the convenient password access. I have also noticed that some sites will reject the Tor browser because (I assume) that those sites are wanting the metadata that you are bringing when you are trying to access said site. In theory with Tor, you are able to change your VPN route and try again but I have not been successful with that yet.

April 29, 2022 – Keeping It Light, If You Can Call It That

April 29, 2022 /

With the recent death of Gilbert Gottfried there was a special relationship between him and Norm Macdonald. Both were more comics than actors despite participating in both worlds.

Me, I was never really interested in Gilbert. But, because of the connection to Norm, my YouTube suggestions have spiked since his death. I find myself watching 10 or 15 minutes a night before I ultimately decide I have better things to do.

It was fifteen years ago or so, I used to listen to stand-up on XM radio. I probably had it on for several years straight. I mostly listened to the rated R station, ‘Raw Dog’ because I think that what makes good comedy is pushing the boundaries. It is not that clean comedy can’t be funny, but I find that often it seems like it doesn’t push the boundaries as the dirtier brand.

My wife and I have attended multiple stand-up shows throughout the years. Actually the last one we saw was at a church called Date Night Out. It was Valentine’s Day but it was a little hard for me to enjoy because I had a fever and was the beginning of what was being sick for weeks. I do remember laughing.

Now that I think about it, the statement above was not exactly true. We saw a local act at the Elk’s lodge a two weeks ago. So, I guess that it is safe to say that I like comedy. It just so happens that Norm Macdonald is my particular breed of wackiness. I loved his deadpan, looked you straight in the eye and tell a tale that is unbelievably ridiculous all the while keeping a straight face. That being said, it is also funny when they get 90% of the way through and loses it too.

I like the idea of comedy on Fridays because it breaks the tension of a stressful week and sends the weekend off on a light and positive note. I had visions of writing unique and funny things on Fridays but it takes a lot of time and energy to have that level creativity. Maybe I should be linking to things that make me laugh during the week? I also liked doing my book reviews on Friday’s as well so maybe I will vasilate, we will see.

This week, I am going with the former.

I know that this is not some of Norm’s best work but it is some of his last work and it is topical. It is interesting to look at comedies’ view of Corona Virus at the beginning of it as compared to now. My, how things have gone full circle.

In my liberal arts education, I learned that the genesis of humor is actually tragedy. When you read Romeo and Juliet, it is historically categorized as a tragedy. The story line and outcome are the tragedy, but a large part of the dialogue is comedy. I think that a large reason Shakespeare’s work is revered is that he was able to entertain the masses by ‘sneaking’ in a serious subject or moral juxtaposition.

Humor is a coping and healing mechanism. After the week I have had, I need some humor. My brother has gone through an analogous type situation as mine, our spouses mother’s needing third party care and the family drama surrounding it. We spoke last night and are nearly identically aligned on our feelings and outlook despite not ever really talking about it. Along the way, we had a lot of laughs about the situation. What can you do?

End Your Programming Routine: I know that a super majority of my work has been serious. It doesn’t mean that laughter and humor isn’t a huge part of my life. Happiness is smiling and smiling is from having fun and laughter is a big part of that. However, I know that I need to make a bigger effort to utilize and develop that side of me. I will keep working on that.

April 28, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 28, 2022 /

Sorry about the blurriness, I tried to get the camera to focus on the pellets but I don’t think I could hold it steady enough. Hopefully you can see that on the left, that is the 9.6 grain pellet and on the right is the 7.5 grain pellet. I did the math and it is a 28% increase in mass. I think that you can also see, that difference is made up in the fill of the pellet.

I am not totally sure, but I have read with that with slugs for a shotgun, the design is weight forward. This helps stabilize the flight of the projectile. That makes the projectile act more like a dart then a proper bullet. Allegedly, these things are rifled (I haven’t checked) so I don’t think that is the reason for the design but maybe that helps with the push out of the barrel.

I noticed with shooting the heavier pellets that they were hitting at a different point of impact. Like all rifles, the rifling is a fixed twist rate. This means that there is an optimum projectile weight range to generate the projectile spin. I have not settled on a pellet weight yet. I have around 700 pellets in the 7.5gr size. I don’t want to adjust my scope until I feel like I want to make a change.

Part of how I would make that particular decision would be on energy. If I get a marginal velocity change and maintain accuracy by going to a heavier pellet, then that would be preferable. In order to calculate energy, I need some meaningful velocity measurements. That makes me leaning heavily toward purchasing a chronograph. The more energy produced, the better pest eliminator this setup becomes. So, that is yet to be determined.

Talking about proper rifles and twist rates, I think that it is helpful to talk about some of the jargon with an example. The faster the twist rate, the more spin that is put on the bullet, the heavier the preferred bullet for the rifle. If we look at 0.22 diameter bullets (nominal) they (typically) range from 40-80 grains. Remember, the measurement of grain? There are 7000 grains in a pound to give perspective.

For 22LR, a standard rate of twist is 1:16. This actually means that the rifling imparts a full twist in 16 inches. Since 22LR bullets are largely 36-40 grains you would expect that rifling to be appropriate. 22WMR shoots the same size bullet and therefore the rate of twist is typically the same.

If you step up to a .223 then the common bullet weight and rate of twist is different. 55-60 grains are the dominant bullet sizes and the rate of twist changes to 1:8 – 1:10. You see the theme, heavier the bullet the faster the twist. Since this is centerfire, you can reload the case and that opens up the range of bullets you can use. I think it is worth noting that just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. So, bullet changes should be tested for accuracy if you are deviating from the typical ranges of bullet weights.

Lastly, in this comparison if we look at 22-250, you will see that they are firing a similar range bullet as .223. But, it appears that the common rate of twist is 1:14. This particular cartridge is going 500 fps faster. This deviates a bit from the straight formula, but this is complicated because you now consider barrel lengths and velocities.

End Your Programming Routine: It seems pretty obvious that if you are interested in the subject then you will become much more immersed than a blog post. Once you settle in on what you are trying to accomplish, then you can try to match barrel and load. I am simply trying to highlight some of the variables and impact for optimum performance. For me and air rifles I am testing the variables to make the best decision.

April 27, 2022 – My Techno Junk is Multiplying

April 27, 2022 /

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about looking for the right deals. Well a couple of those came along last week. I am keeping a strong eye out for components to build my kids their very own hi-fi systems. There are a couple more things I am looking for as well to finish off my ultimate Techno Junk lab (my office).

A few weeks ago, we were moving my mother-in-law into our small house. She thought that her TV was too big. So we swapped a 40″ TV that we had for her 55″ (?) TV. Along with that, I re-wired the area. My wife has been using a Fire Stick instead of the X-Box 360 to stream for the last six months.

If anyone is still using a 360 for that purpose, then they will know that the support window is waning. Applications are starting to be discontinued. The forced obsolescence is another reason why I hate technology. That being said, I do like to do some racing every now and then. So, I took the X-Box down to my office.

The problem is really how to connect it to my current technology. I explored the idea of capture cards to run it through the computer. At some point, I am going to add a TV as a second monitor. But in the end, I decided that I had an open slot in my analog KVM switch. I just had to adapt the HDMI to VGA and get sound at the same time. I bought an adapter and it works pretty slick. I decided long ago the video games were a waste of life force and false achievement so the reality is that I will not use it much, but I can.

My Linux experiment kind of stalled. The reason was that I had no reason to have two computers right next to each other. The challenge with the Linux system is that it is 32 bit and using today’s software is kind of a project for each item you want to use. I thought that I might try moving it over to the loading bench where I might use it for electronic logging of load data, research or streaming while I was working.

My main setback was that I didn’t have another monitor for it since I was using the KVM originally. I have been on the lookout for a used 27″ monitor and I can shift everything down on my work setup. I struck gold on one at Goodwill for $15 last summer but haven’t found another deal like that. Well, I happened across a free 24″ monitor last week. I am not saying this is how it will stay as I still wanted a same size monitor, but really it works and the price is right.

I have had it setup for a couple of days and we will see how well it really works. I noticed streaming some music that it was sometimes choppy. I wonder if I am reaching the hardware limitations as I think there is only 2GB of RAM and the processor is from 2005. Since the computer was slated for recycling, so far there is no cost in trying out the setup.

Now that I have two turntables, I have stepped up my scanning for deals on receivers and speakers. My plan is to have a setup together by my son’s birthday in July. But, I guess I can’t control my cheapness mantra on the project. I scan Craigslist every couple of days as well as stop into second hand shops when convenient. These speakers I saw in town for $30.

The other thing I was thinking about was having a second set of speakers so that we can setup music for family events and not have to move everything. I really haven’t decided if these tower speakers I will use or I will swap out for the existing bookshelf speakers or even keep both. Ideally, I would find bookshelf speakers for my kid’s setup. Ultimately, it is going to depend on where my stereo system eventually lands.

End Your Programming Routine: I suppose that there are more harmful things in life then buying used junk. But, everybody needs some purpose in life. Mine seems to be collecting stuff that I don’t really need. That being said I guess I find it fun. It appeals to my thriftiness and sense of environmental conservation. If I can get something that should last my lifetime for 5-10% of its initial cost, it is preferable by a long way to simply purchasing new things.

April 26, 2022 – Post Myki Era

April 26, 2022 /

On March 3, 2022 I wrote about how I hated technology. My password manager was being discontinued April 10. I have been ‘Riding Dirty’ as they say. It has been working for the last couple of weeks but I have been dearly hoping that I find a new option before my time runs out. I am happy to say that I am trying out BitWarden and I like it so far.

Let us refresh on my requirements for a minute

  • Multi-device support, Windows and Apple IOs definitely, Linux a plus
  • Inexpensive, preferably free
  • Preferred – Browser plug-ins to support auto population
  • New – Ability to import from Myki

I am only into this a couple of days. The import was impeccably easy some of the other functions are more complicated (and more secure). For instance, I am logged out of the password manager each time I close the browser. That is inconvenient but it does have the option to never log out. So, I am going to try it for now and see.

The browser interactions are much better than Myki. If I had one complaint, it was adding new accounts. The interaction was klugey and ineffective. Myki would recognize the account didn’t exist but getting it to work during the first interaction required a mixture of automated and manual efforts to make sure it worked right. Most of the times, I had to log in multiple times to make sure that it was working the way that I wanted.

Myki would often get confused if there were multiple accounts on the same website. With BitWarden, you select the account that you want to auto-populate rather than the software trying to get it. Myki could do it, but you had to manually separate the accounts and set everything up, then you could select the right account.

The browser extensions are like having access to the full program. It makes it convenient to edit and copy while being on the page. The extension is context sensitive an alerts the user that there is an applicable password for the site that is in focus.

I have so far tried it on Windows and IOS and it does seem to work. Syncing seems to be done quickly and I haven’t seen any hiccups. I would say that it is a bit premature to declare everything wonderful. For instance, I have not tried to create a new account yet. Additionally, there are some sites where additional data is required, like a PIN. I don’t know if that will autofill or you will need to have some notes. I will find out.

The one other thing worth pointing out is that this is an open source project. It does concern me a little bit about how it seems so slick and yet it is free. There are some pay options but they really don’t get you that much more. If you have some encryption keys or something, you can store them in BitWarden or you can share passwords within a specific group.

I am saying is free is great, but keep an eye out for how the storage space is paid for. Apparently, there is some tracking of use and the question is what is that used for and where does it go? Yes, all your passwords are encrypted, I feel like that is safe but your movements are not and they are tied to an e-mail account. You might want to have a browser that is not running the extension as your primary browser, just saying.

End Your Programming Routine: I hate to say this and doubts aside, but this might be a blessing in disguise. I really appreciate the smoothness of how the transition has gone and how this seems to just work. I didn’t realize how the nuances of Myki were annoying me but it was better than just having a cloud sheet or a static locker. If this turns out to be a total dud then I will probably let you know. As of right now, it is a recommend for me.

April 25, 2022 – Readiness vs. Preparedness

April 25, 2022 /

Sorry, but it is going dark again. I will try to keep it high level for privacy reasons. We had a huge family blow-out with my mother-in-law last week. We were trying to convince her that she needed to start the power of attorney process and try to engage hospice. My opinion is that we are within weeks of needing to invoke power of attorney and hospice is needed now. She is no longer able to walk, she is eating very little and is going back and forth with her faculties. In fact, we had to call 911 the other night because my wife thought that she had a stroke.

The next day, when we had the discussion she was firmly obstinate and declared that she was not ready to die and therefore formalize power of attorney. That is where the genesis of this topic came from. In most people’s mind, the terms are synonymous, including mine until that moment. They can mean the same thing but they are distinctly not.

I am reading between the lines in the interaction but here is the reality. I don’t think that she is ever going to be ready to die. She insists that there are good days and bad days, which is true. But, every good day is less good than the last one. In her mind, she is still defiant that she is going to beat this even though all of the doctor’s opinions are otherwise.

Not being ready has led to not being prepared. You can be ready and not prepared and you can be prepared and not ready. You can also be ready and prepared and the opposite, you get the point. To me, preparedness has an ‘if’ component to it whereas ready has a ‘when’ component. When those two circles merge you have the if and when.

Let’s say that you are preparedness minded and you are all stocked up for a hurricane. You have procedures in place for this scenario and that variation. However, if the hurricane strikes while you are on a business trip, you are not ready for it. You are not there to execute those procedures and direct your family and turn on the generator, etc. By the same token, you could be home and prepared and the hurricane misses you so you don’t lose power, it wasn’t necessary. If you happen to be home and not prepared, you know the hurricane is coming so it is too late to do anything about it. You are ready but not prepared.

What other topics can we relate? How about life insurance? I have some but it doesn’t mean I am ready to die, it means that I am prepared in case I do. You have a will, you have other legal documents that just in case I get into a car accident tonight, I have made steps to mitigate the other problems that go on with the situation.

The theory of life insurance is that it replaces income in the event of a loss. As we age beyond our income earning years, life insurance is only there to protect assets for estate planning. So, the if is dying while you are making money and you have a family or spouse that needs it. But, even that tapers off eventually unless your spouse can manage the cash flow without you and you invest the life insurance.

I think the best corollary that most people can relate to is parenthood. So many people of my generation (X) opted to wait to get married or at least waited to have children. I know that we did. Some advice that we got was that you can really never be ready for your first child. It is hard to imagine being a parent when you have no context of what it is really like. Despite all of that, you can be prepared in terms of equipment, training, plans and education. Just because you don’t know if you are ready, that baby is coming and you take it day by day. What you don’t know, you make up and keep trying to learn and get better. This is really all you can do.

I like to think that I have possibly learned something about this interaction. Who really knows what we will be like when we get to this point. I can only imagine what I would feel like if I felt like I wanted to give more and needed more time. Unfortunately, all of this time is really wasting the remaining days. I am expecting this to be a clusterf*ck by the time it is over.

End Your Programming Routine: I suppose ultimately where I am at is that readiness has nothing to do with this situation, it is inevitable. All fighting does is make it more difficult to do the right thing at the right time. Ideally, you would have both states, but if you are going to opt for one, pick preparedness over readiness.

April 20, 2022 – Seasons back to Normal

April 20, 2022 /

My kids are playing tennis and it is a sport I really know nothing about. What I have learned is that they do not play in the rain. This year, spring has roared back to the glory of being miserable. I would venture to say that a lot of the winter was nicer than it has been since spring break a month ago.

Since One Drive shows me saved pictures every day for the years previous, I am seeing the recent years weather and I can attest that the weather is worse than when I was building in 2020. Things are not all bad, I know that some years we didn’t even hit 60 degrees until June and we have already had a day near 80. Today isn’t all about weather, what I am trying to say is that this weather seems more ‘normal’ than not to me.

These next couple of days seem to get a lot of attention on the getting gardens started. I am nearing the last annual frost date. From what I see, I am likely in the clear but it was below freezing two days ago. If I was ready to get started, then I would be looking to get starts and seeds in the ground soon. I would be remised to not mention the other two 4-20 and Earth Day.

These three dates are all very close together. My friends in college really got into 4-20. That seems to go part in parcel with the Earth Day culture. This is how I associate or keep track of the last frost date. To be completely honest, I didn’t want to simply write about weather and climate and pseudo holidays but to add some filler into the fact that I transplanted my starts in an attempt to get them stronger for when I do plant them.

As I wrote about last week, I had a lot of germination and a lot of subsequent failure. Once I spent the time to actually transplant, I got a much better look at what happened. All five of my tomatoes made it and in fact thrived. Four habanero germinated, two survived, Five jalapeno germinated three survived. Three banana peppers germinated one survived. Four cabbages germinated, three survived. There were other twos and ones, but I only transplanted the possible viables.

This is my continuation of experimentation on seed starting. I know that in years past the roots outgrew the one inch pots so I am hoping that by giving more space I might save some marginal starts. I guess we will see.

End Your Programming Routine: No garden plants do well in cool, dark places. I have seen multiple times when plants get into the ground and the weather warms up that they become vigorous. I suspect it is too cold and not enough light in the basement. I should move them outside but it is really too cold for vigorous growth yet. So, I will keep monitoring and trying little tweaks to see if I can unlock the secrets.

April 19, 2022 – Frugal or Cheap or Foolish?

April 19, 2022 /

Our electric range is on its last legs. We have rebuilt the cassettes, replaced circuit boards etc. Not only does the electronics randomly fritz out but parts are starting to become not available. We have been talking about replacing it because it has been loved to death.

There are two issues, it is a downdraft and therefore needs to be replaced with another of the same style (or completely remodel the kitchen) and it is built into the cabinets, so measurements are important. With that, we have been dragging our feet because it is going to be an expensive proposition.

The two eight inch burners (the big ones) have become very spotty lately. Both of them are crap shoots as to whether they will work this time or not. Sometimes, I will spend five minutes jiggling the burner until it finally works. They also sometimes cut out while cooking, this is very difficult to deal with because everything is hot for so long afterward.

I decided to order some generic replacement coils because we needed our range to prepare Easter dinner and I was tired of gambling. It turns out that this was also a gamble because the coils did not fit into the stove. I didn’t have time to return them and see if I could find something else, I went to modifying the setup so that it works.

While this was nearly an exact match of the old one, there were a couple of differences. One, the tabs where the burner plugged in was about a quarter of an inch longer than the last one. This pushed the support structure too far out. I decided to cut the support structure rather than the plug in ends. This I did with a hacksaw. I also had to grind the notch deeper after I cut off the excess.

That burner fit. The second one, I also had to cut off a quarter of an inch off the plugs. Before I did all that work, I plugged them in to make sure they work, which they did. Otherwise, I would have had to return them before modification. Now I have working burners again.

This was less than ideal. Obviously, I didn’t want to spend a hour modifying these burners when they were supposed to fit in the first place. However, I was tired of the old ones stopping while I was trying to use them. Was it worth the effort, probably. Was it worth the cost savings, probably not. An hour of my time more than paid for the difference between generics vs Whirlpool/Jenn air burners.

End Your Programming Routine: People forget that there is also a cost in returning items. For me, the return point is almost half an hour away. I am generally an OEM guy for these reasons, it is cheaper in the long run. My logic was that I didn’t want to invest in something that was going away. But, what is the cost of not being able to cook? Certainly a few meals out would recover that anyway.

April, 18 2022 – I Am Starting To Get a Picture

April 18, 2022 /

Maybe this will be ‘My Therapy Mondays’ . Just kidding, but I have been thinking a lot about how to identify my funk. Like I talked about last week, I know that it is largely about all the things I need to do but don’t want to and all the things I want to but shouldn’t because of the former.

What you are looking at is my path from the garage door opening into the interior of the garage. As I wrote about quite a bit in the fall, I expended a lot of energy getting rid of everything both in the garage and the basement. There are some obvious questions that come up. How did this happen? What are your waiting for to get started?

And, I suppose the answers are just as complicated. But, this is a delicate situation. For some reason, my wife has a constant need to buy new furniture and re-organize the living areas. It seems like a constant evolution of lamps, couches, rugs, chairs and other home furnishings. For instance, the bar stools in the picture were $800 a piece. It annoys me that they are replaced by some much less durable stools (one has already broken and it has been less than two months). I have accepted that the barstools will not come back but I feel like they are still well made and probably selling them could help offset the cost of the constant evolution. That means keeping them around and in my way.

I have made multiple trips to the recycling center in the last couple of months. Every one of the new furnishings show up with boxes and Styrofoam and packaging material. Not only is the process expensive but it is very wasteful. In our locality, the ability to recycle is pretty limited which means I have a large volume of things that cant fit into weekly trash can. For me, a minimum dump load is a full pick-up and trailer otherwise I am just wasting more money. So, I am holding onto that stuff until there is enough to make the trip.

I am not denying the carpet in the kids rooms were bad. They were bad when we moved in sixteen years ago. Along with the new carpet came new furniture, new beds, new linens etc. During the room clearings a lot of extra junk was identified as no longer necessary. There were clothes that will not be worn, garbage like old school work, toys that have been outgrown, etc. That all got piled up in the garage.

Also, in the back of picture you can see my son’s go-cart. He is actively working on it. My problem with this is that there are tools, cords and junk spread out everywhere. I feel like he does not respect the space or my stuff. I made him twice over the last weekend go and put stuff away. By my estimation, I think that he did about two thirds of it. And, when he is cutting and grinding, it is showering grit and stuff all over the furniture that is supposed to be donated.

There is also a contingent of items that came as a result of moving my mother-in-law into the small house in the back. By my read, they are also junk but then they are not my things to dispose of (yet).

End Your Programming Routine: I am starting to get the picture that maybe I have a marriage problem and probably a me problem. Of course I want my wife to be happy but I simply don’t want to be around all the things that I don’t agree with. I don’t want to have to climb over things and step on metal and move wheels out of the way to get to the freezer to get ready for dinner. I don’t know when or where this will end because this round of decorating is not done yet. This is the reason I haven’t started taking action yet. This will pass, in the meantime I am avoiding my garage and shop.