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July 7, 2020 – Freedom isn’t free… or wanted nor appreciated

July 7, 2020 /

I had a good Fourth of July. It certainly wasn’t normal or typical. One of the best benefits of living in a small town on Main Street is the parade that goes by our house every year. We usually have a a sizable gathering of friends and family to watch and then the grill goes on afterward. Not this year because of COVID.

Our sister city next door puts on a 40 minute fireworks display that causes enough traffic to take over an hour to move two miles. Not this year because of COVID. As a result, a lot of people were home and a lot of people were itching to celebrate.

It is common knowledge that I live in Oregon. I feel like I have written enough about my opinion that you can probably speculate on where I am going to come down on a lot of issues, but I want to divert to fireworks for a bit. Throughout my years, I have watched this state go from an independent thinking and acting group to an increasing statist leaning. Fireworks are no exception. Oregon has very strict laws on what fireworks are legal under the guise of personal safety and fire risk.

Despite that, Washington does not adhere to the same laws. I am literally sixty miles from purchasing any fireworks that I would like to buy. I can somewhat understand the fire risk argument, however I have rarely heard of a fire started by errant fireworks. I prescribe that it is a more nanny state rule, than fact. I lived in South Carolina for a couple of years and they definitely enjoyed their freedom when it came to fireworks. Ironically, North Carolina did not and we were ten miles from the border in that case.

I want to introduce a term here – Agorism. You can look up the definition but it to summarize it is the voluntary association of people for mutual benefit. We live in a society that is the opposite of that; involuntary association that uses the power of the state to make people comply to arbitrary rules or opinions.

Another applicable term that is misunderstood is Anarchy. The common perception of Anarchy is violence and chaos which I would argue is much more akin to revolution than a society without rulers. I am going to show some examples of what I saw on Nextdoor after we got done with our celebration on Saturday.

In this case, there was a half-hearted attempt blast out an plea to stop lighting fireworks (I am assuming illegal). The first issue is that the people lighting them off are not reading Nextdoor posts right now, I sure wasn’t. Additionally, she made no attempt address the people that she had the issue with. But the real problem I have is the reasoning is not solid. I am willing to bet that there is no one with PTSD in that household. Pets – maybe, but I believe that the real issue is that Becky does not want to enjoy freedom.

Before I get too carried away, I want to make sure that my position is clear. There is a time and a place to light fireworks. Fourth of July, after dark and before midnight is the time and the place to do so. I talked with my neighbors while we were lighting fireworks off. If I knew that someone had a problem like PTSD, I would appreciate it if we had a discussion where we would set clear expectations about what we would do.

I was already kind of agitated when I read the second post.

The white supremacist’s are looting and rioting? What? If you read all the responses you would see that Howard is lamenting the lack of fireworks display – cancelled because of COVID but yet the city (of Salem) is staffing up for a Black Lives Matter protest. People such as Deby are now using completely flawed logic to push her agenda and lash out. There has been no looting or rioting in Salem, Marion or Polk counties (Nextdoor’s target group). Those activities have occurred within the protest ranks. I am not sure what she is tired of.

My point with all of this is that a lot of people don’t really want freedom. They like to think that they do, but true freedom has to let people do things they want, whether they agree with the activity or not. They want to live in neighborhoods with and association dictating what they can do. They want to use the power of the state to enact laws based on their own beliefs. Both sides of the political isle do it. It just depends on your flavor rule.

I think it goes part and parcel with people not using logic and blathering nonsense whenever they feel like it. I am looking for a way to opt out of Nextdoor as I speak.

July 6, 2020 – The marathon continues and commandment for rest

July 6, 2020 /

I think that as believers, we would think that every message reaches with the same effectiveness and efficacy, but that is not true. This week, we didn’t have a small group gathering because it was just a busy holiday weekend. But unlike last week, this one hit me close.

The reason that I didn’t post toward the end of last week is that I am pushing to get this job done. I have four days of vacation coming at the beginning of next week for a family camping trip. I need to get as much done this week or time is going to start to run out.

This week’s message is about taking the time to rest. I am sure that we can all visualize the damage of overexertion. But we don’t always see the hidden or incremental damage when we don’t take rest. I am no stranger to this as you can see my habits tend toward getting this job done at all costs.

I learned early on that I was not the smartest or the fastest or the strongest but I could endeavor to be the toughest or the one that never gives up. I remember that when I was in high school, I joined the wrestling team just to see if I could take it. I didn’t win a single match, but I didn’t give up and I vowed that I would keep going.

I outlasted many better athletes and my mental condition changed to the point where I felt like I could outwill anyone. That started me down the belief in a never give up attitude. That has translated in a burn out type work habits in certain contexts. Under a more introspective analysis, I guess that I thought if I channeled that energy into the right projects or endeavors that this would be productive. However this week’s message is a more counter viewpoint and more importantly, why.

I have done my own reading over the years. But everyone needs a refresher on fundamentals. For instance, one of Steven Covey’s Seven Habits is to ‘sharpen the saw’. From what I always understood, was that you needed to stop and go back to make sure your fundamentals were honed. But did you catch it… stop first. You cannot sharpen the tool blade without stopping.

I have written about being in the moment, it is very difficult to me. Sometimes you need to hear a message from different sources, but I think that I am finally hearing it. From the message, we need to let our fields be fallow so not to ultimately leave them unfertile. Doing so will generate greater bounty. Those fields for me are my marriage and relationships and potentially my health both physically and mentally.

The questions of the week are

  • What does hurry and hustle look like in your life?
  • What are some of the things you can do to find rest this week?

I suppose what hit me the hardest is that we all have the same amount of time in our lives. We are not going to control something that we really have no control over no matter how badly we want to. What is really the crux is using the time effectively.

July 1, 2020 – Don’t forget to sign your work

July 1, 2020 /

Back when I started this project in March, I was thinking of tagging the sheathing (or somewhere inconspicuous). I was thinking of using something like ‘Quarantine March 2020’. But time got away from me. Now that I am heading toward the finish line, I am using up some paint that I nicknamed ‘Pandemic Pink’.

Pandemic Pink started life as many colors that got mixed together. I have been using it to back paint siding and other things that aren’t seen. This was paint that no longer has a home. It was the wrong shade of yellow, former exterior paint, a former door paint that when mixed together turned into a Pepto-Bismol color.

I do this from time to time, I will mix old paint together to get enough to do some sort of project, as long as it no longer has a use. As long as you don’t particularly care about the final color, it can be quite helpful and cost saving. I learned this trick from my grandfather.

I was painting Pandemic Pink today and I am probably on the second to last panel of remaining paint. I thought that I wanted leave a note about the work that was done so that someone may find it in the future. So, I wrote it in Sharpie on the back of a T1-11 panel that I am going to install tomorrow. I thought that it might be cool to leave a story for someone to find in the future as well as solve the pink mystery.

There is no telling that it will ever be found, especially if this house gets torn down with some kind of machine. I liken it to when service personnel signed bombs before loading them on an aircraft, likely never seen. But you never know.

I encourage you to sign your work or leave a time capsule or some other fun or interesting clues to your work. I would enjoy finding something like that.

June 30, 2020 – Writer’s block today

June 30, 2020 /

Today is the last day of the month. Traditionally, this would be a transitionary month, the bridge between school and summer or the weather in spring and summer. Not this year… it has been nicer than usual since early March.

I don’t think anyone would doubt that July is definitely summer in the northern hemisphere. What has this got to do with anything? Nothing really. It is just something I am thinking about since we will be in July next week and I am still waxing about the lost experiences from graduation and the like. I am also just sort of rambling because I am not feeling passionate about any one thing in particular this morning.

I have lots of things that I want to talk about, but mostly I am anxious to get back out there and get to work. I can smell the end is near and I want to get there with my project. So, then I don’t want to take the time to develop a proper article.

A quick aside… I always thought that I would have quite a bit humor in my more creative work – such as this. That has not proven to be the case, which is a little strange. Maybe it is because context and inflection is difficult to discern through writing only? Or maybe I am just not as good as I thought I was or just too lazy?

I don’t know why I have not added more humor, it is part of my character. I like to add little ‘easter eggs’ to see if people are paying attention or not. But yet I have not done anything like that to date. I guess that I will settle for a photo grid of my project and call it a day. I have got some video editing to do when I get a chance. So, stay tuned for that.

June 29, 2020 – Where did the weekend go?

June 29, 2020 /

My mad dash into everything started Friday. I spent two hours on a personality test for a job prospective. I wanted to finish the roof, which I did in about an hour and then it was time to get the kids off to the grandparents so that my wife an I could enjoy the ‘Anniversary Weekend’.

We had another lovely dinner at the Joel Palmer House on Friday night to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. We capped the night off with a quiet fire (for once). Anyway, I am not going to go into all of our celebration but it lasted all weekend. Smack dab in the middle we got this little girl.

Moving on to this week’s message…

Admittedly, this week wandered a little for me. I think that I got the gist of what was being said. I will paraphrase… there is a holy association that we have despite our residence or citizenship. We need to keep our eyes on the right things rather than getting caught up in a more temporal existence. Submitting to secular authority is part of our duties as citizens of the holy nation.

Now, I haven’t been super direct about my beliefs and I intellectually understand that there is a certain zen or reverence in submission. Not that I know first hand, but I believe that monks act in similar belief. So there must be something to that. I suppose that you can distill it down more coarsely by saying ‘put up with what is going on here so that you can have a better, future life (in heaven)’.

Interestingly enough, in these two weeks there is a whole series on freedom in The Survival Podcast. The thrust of the series is about developing personal independence so that freedom is more attainable. These would be more in-line with career happiness and lifestyle. However, I think that the two work nicely together.

The questions of the week are

  • What is the most important thing about your freedom?
  • What can you do this week to honor the freedom that you have?

To me the first question is easy. The most important thing about freedom to me is that people appreciate it and do not take it for granted, for the greater good. One of the episodes last week, Jack implied that people dont really want freedom. By living in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association, by caring about what their neighbors are doing, etc we take away our own freedoms voluntarily.

The application questions are always harder. They require analysis and action. My toolbox fallacy kicks in. It is really this time writing that is my thinking and analysis time. One thing for sure that we are going to do to honor our freedom is celebrate the Fourth of July. Maybe that was intentional?

June 25, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 25, 2020 /

When I started this category a couple of months ago, I had visions of lots of fun. I would measure since the beginning of the year, I have been super involved in two projects that have consumed most of my time seven days a week. However, I have been thinking of this since the fall and that is what is known as the ‘quarter drill’.

Last fall, when my son was on the trap team, the coach had the kids do what she called the quarter drill. The basics of this drill was to put a quarter on the barrel and mount the shotgun without the quarter falling off. They were supposed to do this ten times a day or so with the idea that the mount would become more consistent.

Before we get too far, in trap the shooter generally starts with the gun mounted, so I am not sure what the overall purpose was other than getting used to handling the gun. However, when hunting this can be a very valuable skill. I think that it was also helpful for my son who really didn’t have a lot of firearm familiarity.

I couldn’t quickly find an example video of the quarter drill and I didn’t have time to make one. But I did find this one which uses a flashlight and is of the same end goal of a smooth mount.

Shooting clay targets is fun. I have heard it described as golfing with a shotgun. I won’t go into all of the disciplines today, but it is the kind of activity that you can find a place to rent all of the equipment if you have an interest, but not the gear. There are leagues and tournaments for like minded groups like women or youth.

Just be forewarned that you can get started with a $200 shotgun but there are a lot of $5000 guns out there when you get into these clubs. That being said, don’t be afraid to be and say that you are a new and you will get all the help you want. Have fun and be safe.

June 24, 2020 – Think like a raindrop

June 25, 2020 /

It has been a long day. I usually post in the morning, but today I started work early because it is hot on the roof. So, I spent all day on the roof, making a lot of progress, but I had to stop because I am waiting for vent pipe to be run through the roof so that I can flash around them and finish this thing off. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

After looking inside the bathroom, my wife was concerned that it was too dark. Add a skylight to the list. And then when I was talking to the contractor, he was surprised that I didn’t vent the roof. Now, quick aside for a moment. I listen weekly to the Fine Homebuilding podcast and according to them, the science on vented roofs says that venting really does not actually extend the life of a roof, and therefore unnecessary.

Moisture management is really the key concern, not roof life. Even though the addition is open to the currently vented roof, I am a little concerned that moisture from the bathroom cannot adequately equilibrate efficiently, so I am going to add a roof vent as well.

Think like a raindrop was a phrase that my grandfather used. The older I get the more I understand. At seventeen, I didn’t really understand how water behaved. Now knowing some science I can understand water travels by gravity. It also adheres to surfaces with surface tension. You want to keep water away from the building and make paths for efficient flow.

I remember roofing a garage or some other outbuilding and he kept saying over and over that you need to ‘think like a raindrop’. He must have seen the puzzled look on my face, because he then said ‘if you want to keep the water out, you need to think like a raindrop’, he laughed and moved on. He was always saying some sort of colloquialism or bit of wisdom that was wrapped up in a cryptic message of sorts. It’s funny, but those are the things that stick the most to my memory.

I am cutting this a little short since I lost internet connection last night when I wrote most of this (and lost a bunch of additional work too). It seems like a fitting tribute to my grandfather that I can do all these things. I almost cant wait for the rain this weekend to prove the I can now think like a raindrop.

June 23, 2020 – Motivation, Determination and Imagination

June 23, 2020 /

I am giving credit here to Jack Spirko at the Survival Podcast for coining the three things to make a business (or any endeavor) successful. There may be a little bit of self analysis here too before I get done.

Back when I was working a job, I was a support manager for a software engineering company. One of the frequent hang-ups between adding a new customer was whether my company had in-depth knowledge of the software that we were potentially proposing to support. The prevailing position was that if we did not write the software, then we would not be able to support the software.

Yes it is true that potentially supporting software that was compiled by someone else could leave some risk. Before I get too technical, compiling is the act of taking some base level computer code and packaging it up into an executable form. You could make the analogy to baking. The code is the ingredients and what runs are the results. In the case of software, you cant get from the cake back to the ingredients unless you made the cake. I hope that was simple enough.

Here is a another fact, my team did not write any of the code that we supported. So, to them it was frequently all new. Having access to subject matter experts was possible but it was just as possible that the person that wrote the code did not work at the company anymore. Real production type emergencies did not allow us the time to do any sort of reading or studying of what the system was supposed to do anyway.

My team bid on, won and successfully supported systems that our company did not build. They did not have the same boundary issues that others did in the company.

It is time to refresh on the ‘Toolbox Fallacy’.

You see, the Toolbox Fallacy is the antithesis of motivation, determination and imagination. It is all the reasons and excuses of why something cannot be done rather than just doing it.

I am no exception to this problem. I have told myself that when my pantry project is over, I can dedicate more time to this endeavor. Then came the apartment remodel. I want to move from this free blog format to a dedicated host (when this project is over). I need to develop a clearer purpose and target audience before I migrate. I told myself that would first work on posting consistency before progressing into podcasting. I have been very comfortable posting once a day and then moving off to work on my project.

I suppose the thrust of the analysis is why am I lacking Motivation, Determination and/or Imagination in this endeavor. I can see aspects of all three. I know that in my logical, analytical mind setting goals and working toward a schedule would go a long way into remediating this. Another aspect is accountability. I could skip a week or a month without any real consequences (other than personal).

Despite all of that, at this stage I am going to hold on to the Toolbox Fallacy a little longer. I can see the light at the end of my project. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think about developing this medium daily… maybe it means that this is a hobby and not a future job. My recent spiritual re-awaking is starting to clarify aspects in my life that have long been fuzzy. It has made me accountable and thoughtful in more emotional ways than ever before.

One example of unexpected consequences was that I made a video about repairing a nail gun and now I am approaching 2000 views. I made it for a post on this blog, but now I have gotten a lot of questions about repairing nail guns. I never looked to see if there was any content out there and I made it for my own reasons, but maybe I should look at tool repair videos?

The final message for today is that I will keep looking at these principles and adjust accordingly when and where appropriate. Take a listen to the podcast because there is a lot of good information in there if you ever considered doing something of your own.

June 22, 2020 – Father’s Day and Leadership

June 22, 2020 /

Yesterday was a good day, for me. It started off early where I got up and started the smoker. Our lives are so noisy, that it is sometimes difficult to recognize and therefor enjoy the hour or so of quiet on a Sunday morning. I got the turkey on about seven and cleaned and organized the garage while I was tending the smoker. That was the trend for the whole day, lots of small things got completed, like finally getting my plants in the ground. I think that I am going to have twenty tomato plants and ten cabbages from the looks of the starts.

It very well might be unpopular in today’s society to consider the father the ‘leader’ of the family. But we all know that traditionally that was the case. I suppose that it is pretty fair to say that not all leaders are cut from the same cloth. Many happen to get the title because they were there, not necessarily on qualification. Unfortunately, that is true across many aspects of life, both business and fatherhood included.

I am pretty sure that if you are reading this, than you are at least aware enough for self-reflection and interested in personal development. Evaluating the trend of today’s relativistic and hedonistic culture, I am concerned for the future. I am the last person that is going to preach or tell someone what to do. I am a libertarian anarchist after all.

So, knowing my opinions and thoughts you might be able to anticipate how I would approach the issues, lead by example first. I have said it before, freedom requires free will and choice. To me that also means some people are unfortunately not going to make the cut. They will willingly make the wrong choices. I am at peace with that, what I need to work on a more is acceptance through continued interaction (to lead by example).

This week’s questions are as follows

  • Where do you find protection, support and leadership in your life?
  • What is one thing that you can do to develop leadership this week?

If you are following along, you can tell that these weeks are all sort of intermingling. I believe that is by design. I have know this for some time now, but as I shared in our group yesterday that my healthiest levels of leadership were when I also had some sort of mentorship at the same time.

I believe that it is part of why I got to the point of leaving my job. I felt a tremendous amount of stress, I was unable to forgive perceived (or real) transgressions of the past and I had no level of mentorship or advocacy within my company. My team loved me and half left within three months of me, but everyone needs support and I didn’t have it.

Looking at the questions, the person that is in that role for me is my wife. That seems proportionately correct. However, when it came to things like my last job we had strong disagreements about whether I should quit my job without having a replacement. In the end, she was right that everything was OK and I am glad that I did at this point. That being said, one person cannot be all things.

For me, it seems like I need to increase the size of my social circle and seek mentorship as part of my self improvement journey. Those two may not be mutually exclusive but may come in the same package. I don’t know if I can realistically do all that in one week, but I have taken the time to identify that problem and will keep an eye out.

June 19, 2020 – Maybe I should become a wood poet?

June 19, 2020 /

Sometimes my mind goes in a direction that seems like it is different than everyone else. For instance, while remodeling the kitchen to add the new microwave hood, I found a piece of blocking in the wall that was rough sawn oak. I have written about wood and my speculation of it’s origin before.

To the untrained eye, this would have been tossed out with all of the other debris. It is too short to re-use anywhere. It is still full of nails and has a sizable knot on one edge. But I saw something different.

I first noticed that is rough sawn. That is why I set it aside to look at it later. Then I noticed that it is a true 2″ piece of dimensional lumber. After I pulled the nails out, I started to notice the saw markings. If you look closely, one face is cut with a circular saw (those are the curved lines) and the other face was cut with a band saw (indicated by vertical lines).

Now, I am going to jump around a bit as I do to eventually get to a point (you can feel like you are getting a Malcom Gladwell experience here). In 2015, we wanted to paint the house. While attempting to do some rot repair, we found that the house was constructed in an unusual way. That led to adding new siding. After everything was completed, we were paid a visit by a former owner (Lloyd) who brought us a handful of pictures and a couple hours of stories as it was from the 1960’s when he purchased the house.

Over the years, we have had a number of run-ins with people that are connected to this house. It first started in 2005 (our first year here) when we had a garage sale. Some people that stopped by said that their grandparents lived here and that they used to stay here in the summertime in the 1950’s as children. Everybody knows this house, it is a big, blue Victorian at the top of the hill on Main St.

It seems as though the history of the house is uncertain. The county list the date as 1893. Former owner’s claim that is when records began and that this house dates back to 1873. Further, stories allege that this was the original homestead in the area, with all the lumber from the site. Now, we are starting to circle back to wood.

Let us assume that the rough sawn board on the left is from this site. I counted the growth rings on that board as 36 from what I could see. Not knowing the ultimate size of the tree, a person could speculate that tree was at least growing in the 1850’s (1893 – 36 = 1857).

The board on the right is definitely from this site because I milled it in 2006. When I cut down the fir tree, it had 56 rings making it planted in 1950. The history of the house in that period is much more certain.

Lloyd tells a story that he was living in an old farm house across the street. He was noticed that it was empty and went to inquire about the future of the house. The city considered it a nuisance house (it was previously spit into college apartments) and was going to tear it down, so Lloyd purchased the house. I guess you could say that Lloyd saved the house, but somewhat killed it at the same time because the house was stripped to the framing both inside and out.

The lap siding was replaced with T1-11, the plaster gone, windows replaced, doors and Victorian decoration all gone. On the upside, we got a modern electrical service (200 amps) and insulation and a new lease on life. We heard about how he ceded a portion of the property in back so that the neighbor had a lot size big enough to build a house. We heard about how the other neighbor built the fence on our side of the property line. All-in-all, it was an extremely interesting and surprising visit.

At this point, no one fully knows what was happening on this property in the 1850’s. The town was incorporated in 1859, the same year as the state. One of my future goals is to look at historical pictures and see if I can discern any truth about the origin of the house, including architectural details. I have seen some aerial photographs taken from a balloon that date to the 1880s, but they always orient toward the city center, which is to say away from this house.

There have been numerous changes in the town landmarks over the years. Houses have been moved, rails were removed, even the highway was moved in World War II to accommodate for an army base down the road. It will take a keen eye and thoughtful mind to reconstruct the past, but it sounds like fun.

Happy Father’s Day everyone.