It won’t be long now and I will be done with my remodeling project. I am hoping to have the construction work done this week. My punchlist is only outside now, I have 10 courses of siding, final caulk and touch up paint on the body, gutters and facia board to paint. The last major item that I probably wont get to this week is landscape grading (I need a place to move the dirt).
The camping trip is in the books and the tenants have moved in. I will have final pictures in one wrap up post maybe this week or maybe early next week. Camping got me some new content ideas and vigor to go along with it. That being said, as this project wraps up, summer will be sunsetting at the same time. It will be time for harvest and preparing for a new season.
In the heritage of our country and cultural history, moving beyond the harvest is traditionally a leaner and slower time where all the work of the growing season is behind us. We would live off of our stores, rest and prepare for doing it all over again next year. It is kind of how I am feeling about myself as well.
I had visions of filming ‘how-to’ tidbits daily and posting them on my remodeling project, but I got caught up in the daily volume of work that needed to be done along with the dragging deadlines. Hopefully, that will all change and I can get this going in a new and better direction. I am saying this to get past my toolbox fallacy.
I will be signing off for another round of family time. I think that I will be back Friday, I would guess early afternoon. But with all of the stuff that will need to be done I suspect this is the last post of the week.
It pains me to put this aside when progress is rapidly happening. In addition, there is still a lot of punchlist items to do. There is nothing I can really do about it but be in the moment.
To summarize this weeks progress, floors are going in, the shower enclosure is up, the bathroom door is installed, new counter tops with a refurbished sink, all electrical is done, rough in plumbing is complete and waiting for fixtures and half of the remaining siding is up.
So what is left? Paint and install remaining siding, final exterior touch up, hang gutters, landscape grading, data wiring, finish the floors, paint and install all trim, install cabinets and fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen, add hot water heater, back splash in bathroom and kitchen. That is it you say? I know that it might seem like a daunting list, but each one of them is closing a phase with visible progress.
As much as I have enjoyed the process and the time, I am ready for completion. I have felt the pressure to finish since I started and now that we are six weeks past the planned finish date, this is the largest stressor for leaving for another three days. For the most part, my scope of work is complete – that is the exterior work. None of that prevents move in. But, I have taken up the torch to help wherever I can on the inside, because that will ultimately save money and time in the end.
If you have been watching the online church services I have been posting in recent weeks, then you will know that the last several have been following the story of the biblical character Ezra. I will let you do your own watching and reading if you chose, but to summarize quickly for the point.
Ezra was a leader of the Jewish people migrating from Babylon to Jerusalem. The book of the bible describes some of the trials and tribulations of the journey. My church organization is using this story as a building block to discuss the fundamentals of how churches are built.
So, you remember last week where I said that you have got to do something, even if it was wrong? Well if you watch this, then you will get some conflicting advice. Now, I did actually write what I meant which is that is only do something for unimportant decisions. And that is truly not in conflict with the message.
As I think about the ideas of submission and compromise, I believe that the objective to waiting for an answer is actually the act communicating in prayer. I have heard it said by people that are more diligent about faith that the more you take the time, the more it seems quicker and more frequent.
I think that we have all had the moments where we realize we are in a sticky situation and we promise to change to get out of the problem. A small number of people probably do, I suspect the vast number of people are reaching for hope at the moment and when that situation changes people go back to what they were doing.
This week’s questions and discussion are
How to you express confession to God?
What are you waiting for right now?
I find it extremely prophetic that what I wrote about on Friday comes back around to smack me in the face on Sunday. It seems pretty clear to me that I need to continue to wait and have faith that my situation will change into what it is supposed to be.
It is very difficult to contextualize the events of today when you are in the middle of it. Once the true picture is revealed, you are able to see what decisions are made and grow from the experiences. I suppose it is very much like science. Conclusions are only made after the data is gathered, analyzed and tested against the hypothesis. So when we are in the middle of a situation, we are only gathering the data.
Remember back in high school English, one of the techniques to getting started writing was just to write something? I would say that it is much easier with a computer to just start going and then switch to something more on topic than when we used to have to write it out by hand. I never really did it much because it was so much more extra work, I would delay until I was ready.
Today is kind of one of those days. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to write about. However, I have been thinking about a phrase that my grandfather used to use. When it came to sort of a guessing situation, he used to say “We have got to do something, even if it is wrong”. That was his country wisdom way of saying we will figure it out when we need, if it is that important.
Being the analytical type, I prefer to look at all the data and weigh decisions based on factors such as cost, difficulty, potential risk and upside. Many decisions are not worth such analysis or all those factors are roughly the same. So, that is where you pick a direction and go and change course later if needed.
It is interesting that life can be both ways. It is us that picks a method of handling it. Part of me envies the free spirited type because I think that likely ends in a more self-fulfilled destination. My type picks a direction and never looks back because changing direction is too difficult. Hopefully you picked the right one.
Doing something is what I have been doing for the last year. I have been hoping that the right thing would come along if I was busy doing something else. It is why I have thrown myself into intense projects and at times have ignored job searches and business development at the same time. I am avoiding the pain of stepping backward. This strategy hasn’t proven to fully work out.
As a Christian, I keep telling myself that there is a plan, I am waiting for it to be revealed. But I can’t help but wonder if I was busy painting or hammering and totally missed the signs. My wife says that her friends are flirty with me all the time, I don’t really see it.
Despite all of that, this is Friday and it shouldn’t be a downer. What I am trying to get across is don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t get paralyzed by indecision. I am so grateful to have spent quality time with my grandfather. All the skills he taught me and to think that I am still dwelling on his phrases, you can’t buy that.
I have been getting up early to let the dog out and it has been a great time to get the day started and get my computer work done. Here is a few pictures of my puppy one month later.
I am sure that people that read this topic are frequently disappointed that this weekly segment has been week on the ‘Mall Ninja’ or even the hardcore gear scale. That is not really my intent, I do want to get more into gear and gadgets when I have a little more time to plan. But, it illustrates a point that far more important than a whizzbang, zombie laser is skills and objectives. Surf around YouTube and you can find people that make art or musical instruments with a machete. You can find people that dig a pool out of the ground with sticks and materials found around the site.
It is likely the case that with thirty other tools, that instrument could look 100% better or maybe last twice as long. The point remains that 90% of the objective is knowledge and desire and the remaining ten percent is the rest. We tend to get stuck in the ten percent and lose track of what we can do versus what we are able to do.
Growing up pre-internet, I got interested in building furniture. At that time, the only real consistent and available information that I was aware of was the ‘New Yankee Workshop‘. It definitely taught one approach to woodworking but I noticed a theme. Being sponsored by Delta/Porter-Cable, some of the projects were built to showcase specific tools rather than the tools complimenting the work. Of course, knowing nothing I thought it was the only way something could be accomplished. That lead to some dubious purchases early on.
One Christmas, I received a book called ‘The Encyclopedia of Woodworking’. When I first started reading through the pages I was really out of sorts and shocked because Norm didn’t do anything like what was being presented. The majority of the book was working with hand tools, saws, planes and chisels in the traditional way. My eyes were open to the possibility that there could be more than one way to do something.
Stay with me people… not every post is home improvement or woodworking related, I painting the background first. Back to ‘Tacticool’. The reason to do any of these things, have gear, etc is to have something to protect or worth using the gear for. Why would you want to bother searching for holsters and belts and making sure that your shirt doesn’t ride up if nothing could ever happen. It is a lot of extra hassle.
If you don’t have a family or friends or a desire for a better future, then preparing and training and learning is all a Red Dawn type fantasy. So, my last week was the usual marathon of birthdays and family gatherings (more about that some other time). Added to that was grieving for the loss of my wife’s uncle and the funeral preparations. I unplugged to be there where I was needed most.
Protecting what is important in your life is rarely guarding it with menace and force. It is being attentive to the needs of your spouse, children, friends and extended family first. It is imperative that those relationships are nurtured otherwise you will end up wiping down your rifles and counting ammunition alone. I am encouraging a change in mindset to define what is important and what it takes to keep those things safe. We will get to gear and firearms soon.
I also have another camping trip scheduled for next week but one way or another, my future is going to change. I will finish this project I am working on. I will intensify my efforts to refine what I have started here as well as put out more effort on job search. I will also spend time building my relationships, sometimes at the exclusion of other things.
I am running a little behind this week. I chose to work on my project rather than watch this on Sunday, mostly because we were not going to have any small group attendees. So I watched the service this morning.
This was a message that I would recommend for anyone at any station. Not every one hits me and I can see myself on both sides of the argument. Before anyone thinks that I get too carried away, with ‘churchiness’ and religion I want to be clear that my voice is promoting my beliefs and values. Using the language… loving someone where they are at doesn’t always mean accepting every behavior.
If you have watched these services, you will know that they are a little formulaic. There are usually three bullet items that are the talking points to the message. Today’s talking points are the sources of discouragement.
Harrassment
Propaganda
Written Accusation
As someone that is experiencing a little discouragement at the moment, positive ideas are a welcome suggestion. I feel like I am stuck in a rut where I cannot move on until I finish this project that I am working on. On the other side, I cannot wait to finish my project to keep working toward looking for jobs and life’s other necessities.
I myself have a hard time of being in the moment. It is hard to enjoy the sunshine when you can see storm clouds in the distance. Sure, maybe the clouds will blow another direction, but it sure looks like they are coming this way. And the weather forecast is predicting the storm this way.
I am a very binary person. I have a hard time with obscure transition points. Maybe that is why I had a difficult time in calculus, for a peak the transition is easier, but for a gradual slope what is the transition? Deep down, I understand that this is the path that I need to walk in order to get to the destination. I also understand that in my beliefs that there is only so much you can do to influence the path.
My wife has an uncle that is dying. In many ways it is very sudden, in other’s not. He basically drank himself to death. He was OK to the point where about two months ago the doctors said that his liver was failing. Now, that is not to say that not managing diabetes for the last several years contributed. The amputation of several toes were warning signs of failing management. But there was always tomorrow to correct and change the situation.
I don’t think that there was enough time for the five stages of grief. Last I had heard, he was still in the depression phase. I tell this story because things can always be significantly worse. That family has some real discouragement, not my two bit issues.
My ideas for coping with discouragement are
Have time in the day to identify problems and propose potential solutions
Embrace the unknown to the best of your ability, see the first bullet point.
Have outlets for coping be it friends, journaling/blogging, exercise or physical exertion
Seek help from a qualified source if the problem is larger than you feel like you can address.
I get stuck in the embrace part frequently. For small groups, from the sermon, the questions of the week are
How have you faced opposition in your life?
What verse do you use to make it through the situation?
Remember that poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost? If not, you can read it for yourself. I remember reading it several times throughout my youth. One time, I was a senior in high school in AP English and we were doing a third of a year on poetry. It was an early sign of my miswiring.
How can everything in literature have so much symbolism? We read work after work of supposed super deep and intertwined subtext. Be it ‘The Odyssey’ or ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘Moby Dick’, we spent weeks on weeks of analysis chapter by chapter. Granted, I think that some did such as Dante’s ‘Inferno’ or some Shakespeare.
I feel like there is no way all those stories can be as deep as we try to make it out in a classroom setting. It could be that the only literature deemed classic from the 1600s was Shakepeare and that only survived because his writing was brilliant from a 3D political commentary standpoint. Or it could be because very little was written and this was the best of the period. Either way, it always felt to me that much of the justification for teaching in such a manner was validation of a chosen career field rather than the confirmation of extensive symbolism.
One of my classmates wrote a response to Oliver Twist and in it had a rather insightful line. I will paraphrase by saying taking a live rabbit and cutting it up into pieces does not make a whole rabbit in the end; Something is lost in the process. I started thinking about this topic last night when I was pondering what I was going to write quickly so I could get to work before the heat set in. That is when I thought I would post project progress to keep it easy. Then I thought about “The Road Not Taken”, then I went on to bash the English profession.
This started with plugging the hole for the downdraft vent and removing the drain plumbing from the old bathroom I found several problems, the waste plumbing from the kitchen sink was broken, siding behind the kitchen was rotten. That got me going deeper into the sheathing which had termite damage. Fortunately, the framing was still solid, so all that had to be replaced.
From the bathroom standpoint, the sheetrock and finishing has been completed, it will be paint next. By the way, if anyone has any real research to prove that Moby Dick was more than a story, I would be interested in it. I have never vested the time myself to look, but I am willing to be wrong on this.
One of the seminal experiences in my life was participating in Boy Scouts as a youth. If I remember correctly, I started a little late, like seventh grade and participated actively until I was eighteen. So let’s call it six years. So much of the fiber of my being was shaped and characterized during that time.
For the uninitiated, “Do a good turn daily” is the Boy Scout slogan. It is intended to mean look for opportunities to help someone every day. The motto “Be prepared” has also had a great impact on my life. I remember when I was a senior in college and the only tools I had were a hammer and a 4-in-1 screwdriver (and a Leatherman for pliers, from my scouting days) and I needed another tool. I realized that I wasn’t prepared for anything around the house or car.
It kind of hit me like a ton of bricks and I started buying tools and building kits. Not too much later, I started doing projects and I wanted to have my tools at the project or in the vehicle to go back and forth as well as have something at home at the same time. Then, I found myself running back and forth to the shop so I wanted tools in the shop as well as in the house. Maybe it went a little far?
So, that was one part I clearly took to heart. But a deeper and more meaningful experience was also had. I was lucky enough to get some youth leadership training and that was the gold in the program. I won an award called the HTGR or Hit the Ground Running which allowed me to become a counselor the next year and teach the class reinforcing the training at a deep rooted level. I still draw back to those lessons learned and I credit that training to being a capable leader when the need arises.
My two boys are now in Boy Scouts. Today we are helping the local food pantry distribute about 200 boxes to families that are in need. I have always enjoyed helping with no strings attached. Of course the real work is organizing and running the operation, not just putting in a couple hours of work. But despite that, it is nice to give a little just because you want to and can.
It is kind of strange looking at my kid’s troop that the profile of the individual scouts are a lot like my own experience. Most of them are socially awkward, band or theater kids. Myself is not excluded. We played a lot of games while camping like role playing games or card games and my son’s troop does as well. Truthfully, it is kind of surreal.
All that aside, I am super grateful for what I learned and carry forward in my life. I have heard from other parents that competitive programs do not provide the same value, I do not really have any experiences to compare. What is different from when I was a youth is that there are female troops now. So, in other words the unit is all girls, not co-mingled. I don’t know if there are any differences, again no exposure. But, if your child is not plugged into any extra-curricular activities I can highly recommend the Boy Scouts for a life changing activity.
The reason I was gone was that we were ‘bugging out’. This is our first camping trip in several years. One of the reasons is that I drag my feet when it comes to camping is that my wife and I differ on how and what to do. She tends to only want to go to large parks with showers and such which drives me nuts. I have more solitude at home. Another reason is that, I really prefer a minimalist gear experience, but for the family is a day’s worth of prep on both sides to get all the stuff together.
Nevertheless, we went Monday through Thursday with some friends to a more primative and smaller campground in the middle of the week. It was mostly young families, pretty quiet. But let us get back to the subject at hand, bugging out.
Bugging out is a prepper term for leaving your primary residence on short notice. It would be the opposite of bugging in which is sheltering in place with minimal outside contact (kind of like what we have been doing since March). Depending on the length of the journey, you are ‘living off the land’ as you move to get to your final destination.
Why the heck would you bug out? Well some good reasons would be localized flooding for instance Hurricane Katrina or more likely in our case wildfires or you don’t want to be caught in the middle of a daily BLM riot. When the option to leave is better than the option to stay, you would bug out.
Now is a good interlude to inject some reality into the mall ninja line of thought. ‘I’ll just go into the back woods and take what I want. All I need is a rifle and knife.’ First, you are going to be competing with all the other idiots that think this way. Second, during the whole time, I saw nothing larger than a chipmunk so if you don’t have skill and knowledge of the area your chances of success are quite slim.
Camping is a good way to test your gear, skills and mettle. I have really tried to make my life easier by creating containers with dedicated gear so that it is an easier preparation to go. The problem is the stuff seems to grow more and more. Some of the stuff in the back of the photo we didn’t even use, like the generator (nor did we really need). It is kind of nice to have nearly a full kitchen without having to steal from the kitchen.
The way our cache has grown is over the years, if we needed something on the trip, we added it to stay with the camping gear. It is the little things that are probably the most helpful such as tin foil (for our hats), zip lock bags for leftovers and cooking utensils. Sometimes old cookware got rotated out the kitchen and into the the camping pile. We had an amount of basic spices that stay with the gear like onion, garlic, salt and pepper which is nice to not have to remember such things.
It can also be good to work on your improvising skills and not have everything you need. Cooking over a fire is a good example where often it is an exercise in doing with what you have on hand be it cooking surfaces or utensils. I cant say that we had everything we wanted on this trip. Had we been alone and not with another family, we would have done a few things differently but it worked out.
This year, it is particularly difficult. More people are ‘staycationing’ or staying close to home. I read that records are being set for boat sales this year, supporting that trend. The large parks always fill up fast and reservations usually need to be made in the spring time for summer weekends. But, I think that if you get off the beaten path a bit or are willing to travel a few hours, camping can be done on short notice.
I am feeling pretty down today. I found out yesterday that I was rejected from a job that I applied for. What, no big deal you say? True, in a sense. However, this is the fourth different job that I have made it through a series of interviews to be denied. It makes you feel like you have lost your touch and question yourself. I was sure that this was the one, the best fit in terms of company and job.
I have to say that before this year of journey and exploration, I never was rejected once I got passed the first interview. Even when I did not make the cut, I knew that I stumbled during the interview. I suppose that I am reaching far deeper and higher in the ranks of businesses than ever before and the consequences are far greater than some entry level position, but it is still hard on the ego.
Deep down, I know there is a plan for me. The plan may be to start over in life… I hope not but who knows. I know that this experience has lead me to question my decision making. Was the job that bad? Will I ever recover from this? Was it all an alternative reality where I was really the one in the wrong? I guess that I won’t really know the answer to those questions. The one thing that I can say is that this extended time has been good for my soul. I think that the Lord is teaching me something, I just don’t understand it yet.
Given how I am feeling at the moment, it is hard to celebrate that things are going well for me on my siding project. I am going to try and not be ‘glass half full’ as my wife says. It is slow and steady progress and that is looking really good. All the Weather Resistant Barrier (WRB) is up. Most of the trim is the up and I am filling in the siding.
I am painting before I hang the siding so as to minimize the ladder time for final painting. The idea is to touch up after it is installed. Plus it is a lot easier to to get many of the cracks and joints when they are all pieces before assembly.
I am still energized to get this thing done. It is not project at all costs, but close. The culture of hurry message is banging around in my head with the weight of the world in front of me.
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