Tow Hitches And Word Documents

You know that tow hitch that you put not he back of your SUV? Okay, maybe not you, but people who tow boats, or trailers, or campers. Or, sure, maybe you too. Even if you don’t have a tow hitch, if you have an SUV, or a van or a truck, you have that square hole that the hitch goes into right?

Did you know there are different sizes of tow balls? And you have to have the size of ball that matches the trailer hitch you are pulling. The most common is a 2″ ball. And In fact, you could go your entire life of owning an SUV, or a van, or a truck and never even know there was a different size.

If you are going to pull a heavier trailer, you need a bigger ball. If you have a big boat with double axles, you probably need a 2 5/8″ ball. I didn’t have a big boat, but I did have a trailer that took a 2 5/8″ ball at one point. But, like most people I had the 2″ ball on my tow hitch.

So, I bought a 2 5/8″ ball. Now I had to install it on my tow hitch. It takes a really large socket to fit the bottom of that ball. And it takes a 3/4″ socket driver. And then I needed a pipe wrench to hold the ball while I was unscrewing the nut.

It was about $75 by the time I got all the needed tools. And now I could swap the 2″ ball and the 2 5/8″ ball as needed.

My lovely wife had a question.

How much would it cost to just buy a full tow hitch with a 2 5/8″ ball?

Ah. . . .

The tow hitch costs about $30.

I was so intent on how to swap the ball that I didn’t really think about how else to solve my problem.

I was working with a company that needed to take some files from one format to Microsoft Word. The old software didn’t have a conversion feature. Well, it only kind of had a convert feature. The company spent a long time working with the converted files trying to make them work.

I’m not part of the decision making team on the client side. My company was providing a service and API that the client would call. How they created their documents was an internal decision. But, I just had to wonder,

How long would it take to create the files in Word from scratch?

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com

(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved