Tag: projects

August 7, 2023 – 69, The Real Story

August 7, 2023 /

I don’t really want to give away the real story here, you will just have to listen to find out. That would ruin the schtick. Needless to say I talk about planning and balance and the fight for self-satisfaction.

End Your Programming Routine: The key is balance. Balance is the way to reduce stress and be happy. I believe that balance requires planning and planning requires decision making and priorities. That in and of itself can be stressful. Hence the yin and yang to make the chi flow in the right direction and 69 is one representation of yin and yang. Now we have come full circle.

May 23, 2023 – What To Do in Transition

May 23, 2023 /

No, not that kind of transition… It’s sad to say that when I now hear this word I think the meaning has changed. I am sure that it is just me, but transitioning seems so pervasive these days I just can’t help going there. We are in transition of season, school year, activities, projects, etc. For me, I have all these things going on.

I often find that after I am pushing to meet a goal, if I don’t pay attention, transition becomes the status quo. Or said differently, if I don’t have a project lined up when I finish one, I will languish in this post project stupor. For instance, it feels like I have just finished my sofa table. In relative terms I did considering it took years to complete. But, the reality was that this was now months ago.

I have a real need. The flashing around my front window is leaking and it means that I need to remove 75% of the siding. I am worried that if I don’t address it soon that there could be real damage to the structure. It has already been leaking for eight years. I have tried some remediation efforts but they have only lasted for a season, so now it is time to fix it permanently.

The best time to do that is now, between May and October. I have the light and the dry weather but this is going to be a big project (for me). Ideally, I would rent scaffolding and I think it will be a couple of weeks (straight through). But I am dragging my feet because we have to finish the school year an exchange student on the way, kids going on exchange and my wife going to Europe. This is not to mention that we have a 25th anniversary party coming up in June.

It is probably something I should consider hiring out given that it doesn’t feel like I have time to do it. That is a whole job in and of itself. So, I am stuck in this transition malaise. In the mean time, I don’t want to completely focus on problems but on solutions. I am going to talk about what I do in those periods.

Clean-Up: Inevitably, while focusing on a project I have all kinds of ‘I will put that away later’ moments. This also extends to other areas of the house, not just my project spaces. I get focus and I prioritize the project work over everything else. This is also to say that if I am working in the shop the broom and vacuum come out for a deep, finishing clean. I certainly don’t do that while I am working. But it could also be site clean-up by picking up rotten wood, off-cuts, shingle pieces, garbage or whatever.

Maintenance: If I can see the finish line, I get super motivated to go there. This then give me the propensity to defer certain items. I recently realized that it had been 18 months since my last oil change in the pick-up. I fixed that. I have another vehicle that needs one too. I replaced the sprinkler that was broken last summer and caused me to shut of the irrigation early. This is also a good time to get things done before starting a new project. So, preventative maintenance.

Exploration: Once I complete something, then I feel like I have earned the chance to do kick-back a little bit. Doing a few of the ‘I like to try that someday’ feels like a reward without the guilt of ‘I should be doing something else’. This is exactly why I keep telling myself that I want to try to find this fishing hole lately. But it is also me wanting to try having on keg on tap and one waiting to see if only having one tap is adequate.

Rest: I am the last one to really preach rest. Rest can drive me stir crazy and I prefer exploration to rest. That being said, finishing that lagging book, taking a day trip to the beach, a weekend movie or family activities at the expense of other things comprise rest for me. I suppose rest is also not planning or thinking about the next thing while in transition.

End Your Programming Routine: What I have always wanted was to be real and honest. I don’t want to make myself seem better than I really am. I would say that I probably don’t have the right answer to any question, but I probably have an answer. For some reason, my brain is programmed to continuously push for more things checked off my list and that is what motivates me. But, making downtime productive can also be rewarding as well.

June 22, 2022 – Time to Look Ahead

June 22, 2022 /

Wasn’t that great? We are a couple days from the end of our time here in Spain. I will spend time next week unpacking the important items from the trip. Today, I am starting to change my mindset into looking forward beyond vacation. And boy, there is work to be done.

  1. My summer project. It is time to start ripping off siding and fixing the rotten siding. In theory, I think that it is going to take a couple of weeks. Those ideas always get waylaid by everything else going on. I am going to estimate that this is going to take all summer.
  2. Fourth of July. Since the fourth is on Monday, this will be an entire weekend fireworks, parades, barbeques and carnivals. I don’t mind a fireworks display or drinking some beer. But, I have to say that one day is enough for me.
  3. Chess in the Park. When my son has a dream, it quickly becomes my dream (responsibility). My son has created eight Saturdays where he is running chess in the park. Basically every Saturday between the Fourth and Labor day has a commitment of several hours in the park to run this event.
  4. Of the age of Summer Jobs. My other son will be driving tractor for five weeks. This entire time will be before having a drivers license and therefore we will have to drop off and pick up every day.
  5. Birthday week. The last week in July is birthday week for my wife and son. This is usually the most hectic week of the summer with activities.

That is just July (mostly). What happened to camping and fishing? I don’t foresee this happening this year. August starts to look ahead to the next school year, harvest time and finishing what we started for the summer. Hopefully, I can sneak some respite and recreation in there before the summer is over.

I do have some other expectations for the summer. My wife wants the lattice replaced on the deck. Now that my son’s car is in the garage, I need to block off some time to see if I can help him get it working. This isn’t mentioning things that I want to do like take my dad out for belated Father’s day and restart my range trips that have fallen off in recent months. Culinary book club has restarted and I am planning on an AltF4 series on Atlas Shrugged. Plus, I wanted to put some time into making Adirondack chairs while we can still enjoy them.

End Your Programming Routine: In many ways, I have put my life on hold for the sake of this vacation. To be clear, I did have a good time but I am glad to be moving on. I am anxious to get my project started that I have been putting off for months. It’s a beautiful country with lovely food and people. It is not just me to live my life as a party and lay on the beach, even on vacation.

May 27, 2022 – I Want to Be Transparent…

May 27, 2022 /

As we head toward Memorial weekend, I was thinking about what I was going to try accomplish over the weekend. I also had a juxtaposing thought that I talk some about things that I am going to do but never any update on where I am at or what ever happened.

I talked about transparency with leadership so you know that I think it is important. Being transparent, most of those things never got started. Here is a list of things that I have introduced but have made no progress

  • Wine Cellar
  • Front Yard Garden
  • Sofa Table for my stereo system
  • Shop siding replacement
  • (Now) Adirondack chairs
  • Build a Kitchen Table
  • AltF4 business plan
  • podcasting testing

You know this subconsciously because if I had done what I said, I would be writing about it more than likely. I have a couple of other things that I have started, but never completed. And like all humans, I pick an choose things I would rather do or are motivated to do. Seems like lately, I just don’t have the energy or the drive to do things after work with so many family activities happening.

To be fair, the siding is going to be done this summer. I had to go to the dump last weekend to clear out my trailer so I had room to do the demo. So, that is progress; that I didn’t report on. In this current week, I have been making trips to Goodwill so I can clean out the garage to get my son’s car in so that we can have some paver work done. Not on my want list, but my need list.

All of that garbage and donation stuff has clogged my garage and shop all winter and spring. This is not an excuse, but a very real obstacle to me working on my projects. That logjam is unclogging finally.

Last year, I replaced the derailleur on my son’s bike but I never did the final gear adjustment, I was getting five of the seven rear gears. He was complaining that the handle grips were sliding off. I bought some new ones and when I went to slide all the mechanicals down the handle bar, the cables came loose. I went to try and fix it by taking the bike to a park and using the stand, but then I found that the derailleur bracket was bent, I didn’t have the tools and I wasn’t sure of the right correction. In my heart, I could have fiddled with it more and gotten it licked. But, not having a stand at home just led me to finally take the bike in.

The truth is my own bike has been only partially functional for years. I have always hated the pedal clips, the rider geometry has me too bent over to be comfortable and the worst part is that the shifters have been partially seized. I decided to take both bikes in. Like I was saying a couple of weeks ago, it’s not that I couldn’t do these things but at this point, I would rather ride the bike than work on it. This is especially true because my precious time is going to be focused on my siding project over the summer. Having the ability to just jump on my bike and go makes me much more likely to do so than spend the same time fooling over new parts.

I have no good reason why I haven’t done my business plan or podcast testing. When I have talked about this before, I have talked about my intent by announcing something and accountability. Since no one is really communicating with me over this channel, there is no real accountability. What keeps me writing everyday is my drive to want to do it. Since no one is asking and I am happy with where I am at, I haven’t been motivated to do anything different.

Transparency to me is admitting that I am not perfect. Not everything I write about turns out to be a dream. I have a pile of video on things that I was planning to create video on, but didn’t work out. I am not sure if I should go ahead and edit and publish to be real or just delete them as stuff that didn’t work. For now, I am just holding on to it.

To be sure, I am going to keep being me. I am going to write about things that I intend to do when I write them because maybe they inspire someone to do something similar on their own. I am going to maintain a list of things that someday I want to get to. I am going to keep pushing myself to try things I have no experience doing to learn and try to teach or coach.

I am not going to apologize for follow through until I get some sort of dialog where I find out that I am disappointing people. As far as I know, nobody is routinely reading this anyway. If that day comes, then I will have true accountability and I promise that I will do a more careful job of follow through with my announcements and projects. There is no doubt in my mind that I will have the proper motivation when I know people are waiting for me.

Like everyone, I get tired. I want to check out sometimes. I find things I would rather do. I have obligations that I didn’t realize before I thought I was going to do something. It is cold in my shop without the heat on. I don’t want to start something to get interrupted by something else. I have a myriad of excuses and reasons I haven’t done the things that I probably should have. I also have on my list a bunch of things I don’t want to do but need to, so this problem is not exclusive to just my personal goals.

I feel like I am the true master of none. I am a very amateur woodworker, mechanic, shooter, woodsman, scientist, gardener, brewer, etc. I think I am a decent cook and carpenter but I don’t always have a project or feel like sharing dinner. My interests are in learning, teaching and following my desires are what drive me. I hope that my courage to try is inspiring to others.

End Your Programming Routine: My original title for this site was going to be Polymath Daily, not AltF4 because of the wide variety of topics. I am glad that I went with the latter rather than the former because it allows for more emphasis on opinion and less on hard skills. At this point in my life, I am going to prioritize family and relationship over hardcore projects and skills but that doesn’t mean I am going to quit trying. I hope you have something planned for this holiday weekend that fulfills you.