I didn’t want to write this blog post. It’s not that I dislike the topic, I just wasn’t motivated to sit down and write. I used to think that there was something wrong with me. Like a lot of people, it’s hard for me to get motivated. Yesterday, I had an epiphany. I don’t need motivation. In fact, I’m pretty sure that motivation is highly overrated. It’s like the starter on a car. The starter is a simple motor that runs off the battery. It’s whole job is to get the engine to turn over so the car can run. It’s that noise you hear when you first turn the key, but before the engine kicks to life.
Ninty-nine percent of the time, your starter is doing nothing while you are driving. In fact, if you have ever had to push start a car, you completely bypassed the starter. You substituted someone huffing and puffing behind the car for that simple motor.
Motivation is like that. It might get you moving, but it won’t keep you going. I needed motivation three years ago to start this blog. But, that “Let’s start throwing my thoughts into the void and see who listens” motivation is long gone. And yet, everyday, Monday-Friday, I show up and write. That’s not motivation. It’s something else.
“The Hunt For Red October” is one of my favorite movies. Captain Ramius is explaining to his officers why he chose to inform Moscow of their intention to defect.
When Cortez reached the New World, he burned his boats. As a result, his men were highly motivated.
Motivation gets you to move. It inspires action, and like a burst of adrenaline, it gives you the energy to start. I’m great at starting things. I have a dozen story ideas, two books, countless house projects, an exercise regime and a whole head full of ideas. I know I could start on any number of them. I’m motivated. But, motivation, like adrenaline, wears off. There are certain things I haven’t started on because I know I don’t have the energy to finish them. And that’s not a bad thing.
Living with adult ADHD for decades, I’ve come to know myself. I know that I only have time to focus on two or three things, big things, in my life. I love storytelling, but I skipped my Toastmaster’s story telling competition this year. Last year I won a couple of trophies for my “Rubber Car” speech, but it took a lot of time. I could have entered the competition this year. I was motivated, but I have some other things I want to do that are more important. (Okay, probably pretty arrogant to think I’d win, but it was a really good story.)
So, if motivation isn’t what gets me out here everyday writing, what is it?
Determination
I realized recently that if I choose to do something and commit to it, there is nothing that will stop me. That doesn’t mean that I will master whatever I’ve set out to do. I can play basketball for six hours a day and I’m never going to get into the NBA. But, we don’t have to master everything we attempt. I’m not really a runner, but if I set out to run, I’ll fall over dead before I drop out. (Staring Into The Abyss)
Paul Newman was in a movie called “Cool Hand Luke.” If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “What we have here is a failure to communicate,” it came from that movie. His character picked a fight with the biggest guy in the prison. The big guy knocked him down easily. Newman got back up. The big guy knocked him down again. He got back up. This continued with the gathered crowd eventually begging Newman’s character to “stay down.” Eventually, the guy he was fighting also begged him to stay down. Newman could hardly see and could barely lift his arms, but he continued to struggle back to his feet. Eventually, the big guy just walked away. Newman’s character won the fight, not because he beat the other guy, but because he refused to let the other guy beat him. (Watch the clip here.)
Our challenges probably don’t involve getting literally knocked down again and again. And they may not even involve getting figuratively knocked down. Our enemy is not the guy who wants to stop us, the enemy is when we decide to stop ourselves. When we keep on going, even when it’s boring, even when the fun is gone, even when our motivation has left us, we keep putting one foot in front of the other, one word following the next; it’s in those cases where our determination to never quit kicks in, that we succeed.
Determination trumps motivation.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I finally got the last of my Christmas lights put away yesterday. I’m normally not one to leave them up past the first week or two of January. This year, they stayed up there for weeks. Everytime I thought, “I’ll take them down on Saturday, we’d get a big snowstorm. And then it would take weeks for the snow to melt off my roof. In fact, it snowed last week, but not enough to stay for more than a day or two.
The weather has turned warm. It still freezes at night, but the days are in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s warm enough that I’m starting to think about gardens. I heard a story one time about a man who put his children in charge of the garden. He ensured they worked on it, but the decisions of what to plant, when to water and harvest, he left to the boys. They naturally, made less than optimal choices. His neighbor noticed how poorly his garden was doing despite the work that his boys were putting in.
You’re vegetables are looking a little poorly.
I’m not raising vegetables. . .I’m raising boys.
My garden often looks like that. We have a large (70×50) spot on the side of our house in full sun. The soil was pretty much clay when we started. We’ve added some organic material over the past couple of years, but we still pretty much just use what’s there. The garden has cost us much more than the price of vegetables.
And yet, I don’t begrudge the money. Before moving to this house, we lived in a neighborhood with a strong Home Owners Association. The HOA took care of all the lawn care. The houses were close together and my neighbor’s had a garden in 8×8 raised beds. We moved to our current house so that my children could have the opportunity to mov the lawn, and shovel the walks and plant a garden.
I remember gardening when I was a kid. My dad paid for the equipment and the seeds and arranged to have someone till the garden plot. But, it was my brothers and me who made the planting decisions. I remember one year we got a bunch of lettuce and another where the broccoli was pretty good, and of course, zucchini will grown anywhere. But, I’m sure my dad spent a lot more on the garden than we ever saved in vegetables. However, now, 35 years later, I still remember the time I overwatered and drained half the soil onto the the grass. I remember the year the carrot rows were 2″ apart and we couldn’t hardly pick them, instead of 8″ as suggested on the seed package. I remember the pride I felt when we had a salad made from the lettuce that I grew.
I’m beginning to thing about the garden this year. I’m determined to make this year a bounteous harvest. I have visions of dozens of quart jars full of beans, plenty of strawberries for eating and jam, cooking with fresh herbs from our garden. And yet, I know that the most valuable harvest I will get is from the hours I will spend with my kids tilling, planting, weeding, watering, more weeding, and harvesting.
Whatever we pull out of the garden will be a pure bonus.
I’m not raising vegetables. I’m raising boys (and girls.)
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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The temperature in the canyon that night was in the 20’s. There was about two feet of snow on the ground. As night fell, we each crawled into the snow to go to sleep. Except for two leaders who had brought a tent. Those of us in the snow felt a little bad for the tenters, there were gonna be cold.
I wondered if I would be. I stared up at the ceiling of frozen snow a few inches above my face. I lay very still. The slightest bump brought down a cascade of ice particles. I had a brand new sleeping bag. It was a birthday present. Maybe an adventure in the snow wasn’t the best place to test it. I shifted my position and got an ear full of snow. I’d dug the ceiling higher but my sleeping pad was 4″ thick and that had cut the distance. Not the place for someone who was claustrophobic. I wasn’t. Well, I hoped not, anyway.
I had volunteered for this experience. I looked forward to it even.
A snow cave is exactly what it sounds like; a cave made from snow. You build it. To start, you pile snow about six feet high and ten feet in diameter. I went up with some other leaders and a group of boys to do that last week. I was going to be in my own snow cave. I dug into the snow and piled it up higher and higher. Eventually, my digging got down to the ground, 24″ deep. Then, I started shoveling a path. Always throwing the snow onto my growing pile.
Six feet is considered a good height for a snow cave. I’m six foot tall. The pile was still smaller than me. More piling. I was trying for an inverted bowl look and I was getting more The Matahorn. The other caves were going to be occupied by two or three boys. Their mounds of snow quickly grew.
As I worked, I thought about what we were doing. We were going to be in the canyon for a single night. If the snow caves failed (and I wasn’t sure they were 100% safe despite the history that others in our group had with them) we had the vehicles to sleep in. We were 20 minutes from home. Worst case, we could simply loud up the boys and go home.
Dinner was chili cheese dogs. We picked that meal because it was easy to fix. Later one of the other leaders who had come up to help us mentioned that they always had chili cheese dogs during the snow cave campouts. Our scout troop has a long history of winter camps. This was my first snow cave, but my older boys had been on snow cave campouts in the past. And that was what scared me a little as a leader.
Several years ago, my boys went on a campout in this same canyon. They built snow caves, not far from where we were right now. However, one boy missed one of the important instructions: don’t get wet. Now, it’s impossible to make a snow cave without getting wet. You are literally digging in the snow. That’s why it’s very important to bring dry clothes.
After piling my snow mound high enough, I started digging it out. You pick a spot at the bottom of the pile and start digging in. The walls should be at least 6″ thick. At that thickness you can see outside light through the walls. Eventually, I had dug far enough in with the shovel that I had to get down on my hands and knees and dig in the hole. Then, I had to start crawling in. Always digging. It’s important to start low and dig up into the cave. During the night, what little heat you generate will rise and warm the upper part of the cave.
When I completed, my gloves were soaked. My multilayered of pants were soaked, my Gortex coat had lived up to its billing and kept me dry, but I was pretty cold. All the boys were. That’s why we fed them hot chili and hotdogs. And insist that they all change into dry clothes before going to bed. In addition they spread tarps out in the caves and also folded them over their sleeping bags. Cold is the enemy and wet leads to cold.
During the previous campout, one boy hadn’t brought dry clothes. He didn’t put a tarp under his sleeping bag. He was tired. He was cold. And he was wet. And then he went to bed. Several hours later my son, who was sharing a cave with this boy heard him leave the cave. My son was warm and dry in his bag. He didn’t want to get up. The boy didn’t come back. Eventually my son got worried and braved the cold. As he climbed out of the tunnel he started looking for his friend. Eventually he found him wandering barefoot in the snow.
Hypothermia is when you body gets so cold that is doesn’t have the ability to warm itself back up. It’s a serious condition that can quickly lead to death. It’s brought on by cold and wet. Worse still, hypothermia makes you stupid. Literally, you cannot think straight. This boy was well into the hypothermia stage. My son got his friend steered to where the leaders were sleeping. Waking them up, they quickly bundled up the boy and rushed him back down the canyon.
It was a close thing. The boy had frostbite on his feet.But, he lived. As a leader, it’s your worst nightmare.
And I had two boys on this campout. And I was entrusted with nine other boys. The leaders and I all checked and double checked the boys. We had three boys in each cave. We reminded them of the story from years ago.
The actual night in the cave wasn’t as bad as I feared. Once I learned to not touch the ceiling and my sleeping bag warmed up, I was very comfortable. One of thus leaders got up during the night to check. The morning dawned cold with all boys accounted for.
It’s a good skill to have. There are cases of hikers or snowmobiles getting stuck in Utah’s backcountry and having to build a snow cave to survive. I’m not sure they all have chilli cheese dogs prior to going, but it would probably help.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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My phone died on Saurday, not the “Need to go spend hundreds to get a new one” death. Instead, it was the “It’s been too long away from a power source” death. I plugged it in for a couple of hours, but then something broke at work and I had to use it. All day I struggled with getting enough power. It got me thinking about how we use power.
During the Gulf War our soldiers used unprecedented amounts of electronics. (If We Run Out Of Batteries, This War Is Screwed.) In our modern world we face similar issues. My phone died, but I also have an iPad that needs to be charged. I rarely take my laptop out of its docking station, but when I do, I just leave it turned on relying on the batteries. My noise cancelling headphones need to be recharged.
As stocking stuffers for Christmas, I gave my kids each a USB wall charger. They have so many devices that there was a queue for the available charges. I got to thinking though, do we really need wall chargers? Should we?
We are in the process of putting solar panels on our house. We’ve looked at it for several years and waited for the costs to come down. We can power 100% of our household needs via solar power. The challenge, of course, is that unless we want to install a bunch of batteries, the solar power has to be consumed immediately, wasted or pushed back onto the municipal power grid. But, since our power company will pay us for the electricity we push on the grid, we can end up with no power bill. I still have to pay off the cost of the panels, but once they are paid off, everything else if gravy. As the costs continue to decrease, I expect that homebuilders will start roll that into the cost of the new house. Especially in Utah were we get a lot of sun all year long. There is still the issue of the panels on your roof. Some people consider them ugly. That’s still a deterrent. But, perhaps not for long.
The other day I saw an ad for clear solar panels. And all buildings need windows. Could it be long before we have self-powering buildings? And if buildings, why not cars? Lexus a few years ago had a car with solar panels in the roof that would keep it cool for you while the car was off. Solar panels are appearing on hybrids to help make them even more efficient. It’s hard to image a solar panel efficient enough and small enough to power a car, but we are getting closer.
How does this impact tech? Even if you could put a solar panel on your cell phone, leaving it lying in the hot sun would more likely cook your electronics than power them. But, Tommy Hilfiger makes coats that have built in solar panels. You can use them to charge your devices. As the cost of solar power comes down and the innovation goes up, I wonder if we are approaching a point where power, at least in small amounts, is essentially free.
I can go to my local Library, or Starbucks or any number of locations and get free wifi access. The access isn’t really free, of course. But, the cost has come down so much that it’s worth the companies to simply give it away.
This is not a new concept. Public water fountains go back the time of the Romans. Cities give away free water. So, does just about every building you go into. In the airport, I can not only fill up my water bottle for free, I can use wifi and charge my device at no additional costs.
I don’t think it will be too many more years before free power is as ubiquitous as free wifi or free water. Perhaps someday people will look back at the power situation in the early 21st Century the way we look at outrageous long distance rates from the late 20th Century. No one pays for long distance anymore, but it used to be really expensive. Let the cheap power flow!
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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The long winter is finally coming to an end. On February 2nd, the groundhog didn’t see a shadow and we took that as a sign of an early Spring. But, an even more accurate predictor of Spring happens this week. This week the Boys of Summer make the trek to places like Jupiter, Florida, and Surprise, Arizona to start shaking off the rust of the months since last November 2nd.
Yes, the four most exciting words in sports were spoken this week:
Pitchers and catchers report.
I know that not everyone is a baseball fan. In some ways, baseball is like Country music. It’s not unusual to hear, “I like all kinds of music. . .except Country.” People who will live and die for 72 games through the winter with their favorite basketball team, and follow the Sunday games of their favorite NFL team and even sit through hockey, (I just watch for the fights) will turn up their nose at baseball as too slow, boring, worse than golf.
That’s fine. I’m not trying to convert anyone. In fact, at one point I thought baseball was the most boring sport in the world. Think about it, what’s an “exciting” game? A no hitter. When literally no one hits the ball. Actually, that’s not the definition of a no hitter, but I don’t want to alienate the few remaining non baseball fans that read this far. But, more exciting than a no-hitter is “the perfect game.” You can pitch a no hitter and still walk guys. In fact, there have been cases of pitchers throwing a no hitter and actually losing the game. However, in a perfect game, no one even gets on base.
Baseball is a sport where perfection is defined by absolutely NOTHING happening. Harder to get a better definition of boring than that. But, at one point I decided to try to understand the game. I wanted to understand why people would sit for three hours or more and watch a couple of guys throw a ball back and forth. And as soon as I sat down to learn the game, I was hooked.
Baseball, is a game of nuances. More than any other game it literally is a game of inches. A baseball is slightly less than 3 inches in diameter. Bats are about the same. Throw in the fact that a bat is a cylinder and a baseball is a sphere and spinning while travelling at speeds up to 100mph, and the difference between a hit and a miss is less than an inch.
It’s 60’6″ from the pitcher mound to home plate. A batter has about .4 seconds to decide to swing at a pitch. “That’s nothing,” you might say. “I’ve seen basketball players catch and release a shot to win a game in less time than that.” That’s true, but a baseball player is going to face that .4 second reaction over and over and over. Sometimes a single at bat can include eight or nine pitches. And most batters come up at least three times per game.
We’re still a couple of weeks away from the first spring training games. And Opening Day is still six weeks away. But for a baseball fan, this week marks the end of winter. There might be snow on the ground in most of the country, but Spring has finally come.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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I heard about a sign on a local business that wasn’t what it first appeared to be.
We’d rather serve 10,000 terrorists than one American soldier. . .
They have become the ultimate boogeyman: if we don’t __________ then the terrorists win. Who wouldn’t want to help stop terrorism? And yet, there’s one company that is standing up and saying: NO. We won’t help you stop terrorism.
And they are right!
I drive a 20 year old car. It has an onboard computer, of course, but it’s not in the least “wired.” No OnStar. No lowjack for tracking it. No black box recording my speed and location. My cell phone is the only way someone could track my car. New cars, aren’t like my old Lexus. They are more and more plugged into the cloud. And I’m not even talking about the ones that drive themselves.
Last summer a man and his dog became trapped in his 2007 Corvette. A cable came loose when he got in and it killed all the electronics including the windows, locks and the horn. The man couldn’t figure out how to manually unlock the doors. Tragically he and his dog died before anyone noticed he was in distress.
One of the locks on my Lexus has become disconnected from the automatic locks. So, I have to remember to manually lock and unlock that door. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that old cars are better. (They are easier to fix.) But, I’m trying to point out that there’s a price to pay for that technology. Stuff breaks. If the broken stuff is in your house, you might need to fix it. If the broken stuff is “in the cloud” you might not even notice as criminals take advantage of your problem from half a world away. What does this have to do with terrorism?
The company that is refusing to help stop the terrorists is Apple. The terrorist who killed 12 people in San Bernardino last year had a cell phone. An Apple 5S according to reports. The terrorist put a PIN code on it. It’s locked. The FBI thinks there might be important information on it. They want Apple to unlock the phone. Apple is claiming they can’t. And that’s sorta true and kinda false.
First, I need to set aside my personal belief, it’s almost a life motto, that all computer data is accessible. Google and Microsoft read your mail. Apple collects tons of data from your phone. Personally, I believe Apple can get into any phone they want. However, Apple claims they cannot, and that’s important. Most people are not like me. Many people believe that computer data is private and not accessible.
Apple needs to keep those people believing they don’t have a backdoor into your phone. And that’s exactly what the FBI is asking for; a backdoor into iPhones. They want Apple to update some something called firmware to include a backdoor and install it on the terrorist’s phone. Apple has refused. They claim that they do not have a backdoor. And that they didn’t build one because it would be too irresponsible.
From a technical standpoint, what the FBI is asking for is pretty simple. You know that if you put the wrong PIN into your phone 10 times in a row, it will wipe the phone. At least you should know. My friend handed his 3 year old his locked phone to “play” with, knowing the child couldn’t unlock it, but forgetting about the 10 failed feature. It wiped his phone and on that phone were the pictures of a recent once in a lifetime trip to Europe. He no longer lets his three year old borrow his phone.
The FBI knows that if they try to guess the PIN code for the terrorists, they will not be able to guess in ten tries. The phone will wipe and it’s bye bye to any incriminating evidence. They want Apple to disable that feature. Also, every time you fail to enter the PIN correctly, you have to wait a little longer before you can try again. The FBI wants that feature gone too. And finally, they want to be able to send PIN requests using a computer rather than a person having to manually enter each number.
Their purpose is simple. They want to hack the phone by putting in every possible PIN code. It’s called a “brute force” attack. And with a six digit PIN there are only 100,000 possible combinations (Actually 99,999.) A computer could whip through that in no time at all. The reason the FBI cannot do it is because Apple wrote the codespecifically to prevent that sort of attack.
Could Apple rewrite their code to allow it? Absolutely. But, for those people who do trust technology companies, Apple would be admitting that your phone is not really secure. That given enough time and governmental force, they could hack into it. Knowing that is possible, and actually doing it, is the difference between having a nuclear weapon and using it.
Apple has not committed any crime. They are not being accused of a crime. They are being forced to write software for the FBI. Why? Why should any company be forced to do the government’s bidding so the government can go check someone else for terrorist connections?
Apple, is claiming that doing so would violate a trust they have with their customers. And it would. We all want to stop terrorists, well except that shop I mentioned at the beginning, but at what cost? It’s like the person who defends hate speech by saying, “I disagree with what you are saying, but will defend to the death, your right to say it.”
Apple should not forsake the security of the rest of us simply to give the FBI the chance to search someone’s cell phone. The cost is just too high.
Oh, that company that wanted to serve 10,000 terrorists rather than a single American soldier? A funeral home.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2016 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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The product launch was going well. We started taking calls right on time. A rarity. Our software was working flawlessly. But, several agents weren’t logged in.
Clark, what’s the deal with those agents in the second row?
Oh, they can’t get logged in.
This was bad for two reasons. First, as the Technical Account Manager, making sure people could get logged in is kind of one of my responsibilities. Second, this was first I heard about a problem. The day of the launch is not the day to being finding these type of issues. We not only have processes designed to make sure everyone’s account is properly configured prior to launch, we even have a final check the day before the launch.
Did you have them test their logins yesterday?
Yes.
So, what happened between yesterday and today?
Nothing. They were broken yesterday too.
The answer caught me off guard. It’s true they had tested the logins just like we had designed. I didn’t think to include a step in that testing describing what to do with a failed login.
We quickly collected the list of impacted agents and sent it off to our client contacts to expedite. We also figured out why Clark had an issue. He knew the accounts were broken. They had been broken for the entire training period. He had been trying to get them fixed since his class had started. What went wrong?
Having a well defined process.
We run countless training classes. Our trainers, in addition to teaching the class, make sure that the names of the agents are submitted so that the agents have access to the proper tools. We literally have dozens, if not hundreds in any given week. Most times the request goes through just fine. But, this was the exceptional case.
What do you do when the normal process fails, or is delayed, not just in this instance, but in general? Many people stand at the door and keep knocking, hoping that it will eventually open. Some people head around to the backdoor to see if that one has better luck. Still others make their own door.
I’ve always soft of been one of those last types. It’s why I enjoy my job. My role is to find ways to resolve problems. It’s expected that I will then design processes to avoid the problems in the future. But, much of my day is in troubleshooting mode.
Unfortunately, our trainer didn’t know that. And I’m not the only escalation point for issues. We have multiple people solely, or partially tasked with getting the door open. Our trainers didn’t use any of us.
It worked out okay, our launch went well, we quickly got the list of agents to our client and they expedited the account creation. But, it was a good reminder that the best contingency plan in the world is worthless if people don’t know to use it. Simply testing the system is only effective if you have a process for both a successful and an unsuccessful test. Otherwise, you’re just having people go through the motions without any real benefit.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2016 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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The baby wailed from her room. Not a cry for help, but the cry of the tired who don’t want to go to sleep, but are too young to understand that’s what they need. I was visiting my daughter. It was an unscheduled visit. I commute home past her house. Most days I think of her and smile as I continue home. Today, I turned in at her street. My car insisted on it.
I spent much of last week installing a new water pump in my car. The outside temperatures were in the 30’s. I like working on cars. Doing so in the winter isn’t the most fun. You can see the space heater and the tarp to trap the heat. I put down a piece of carpet to keep my shoes off the freezing concrete.
Overall, the process was about what I expect from my skills. There’s a 14 minute video that shows how to replace the water pump. I took three days. But, eventually the water pump was in and the power steering belt was reinstalled, and the alternator belt, and the timing belt. . three times on the timing belt. And all the covers and brackets. I waited to refill the car with coolant.
On Sunday I replaced the thermostat. I might not have had to do the thermostat. But, since I had already drained the coolant, I thought “in for a penny, in for a pound.” I didn’t want to have to drain the fluid again if the thermostat really was the problem.
You can test a thermostat. It opens up at about 180 degrees. Since water boils at 212 degrees, just cook up some thermostat soup. The old thermostat worked just fine in the boiling test. More evidence that it really was the water pump.
The last step after replacing the thermostat and then refilling the system with antifreeze is to burp the system. I thought about this step as I listened to my granddaughter complain about going to bed. She’s old enough that she doesn’t need to be burped, but when they are small, burping is one of the most frustrating activities imaginable. The baby drinks her bottle just fine. She’s happy. She’s making silly faces as the milk dribbles out of her mouth. She’s adorable. And then. . .she starts to fuss a little. Is she still hungry? More bottle? No? The discomfort continues and if you don’t deal with it, before you know it you have a screaming baby and a very frustrated father.
Even when you know that burping is the answer, it’s not always simple to get them to burp. You pat them on the back. You bounce them on your knee. You stand up and “bounce” gently around the room. ANYTHING to get that last little bubble out. Because even a little air will make your car overheat.
See that yellow funnel in the picture? It’s called a burping funnel. A car’s coolant system is very much like an infant at feeding time. You can pour in the antifreeze, but if you don’t get the bubbles out, the baby is going to get upset. I know this. I’ve raised 13 kids. I’m GREAT at burping. . them. Last year we replaced the engine in my car. That’s why I even own a burping funnel. I burped. I squeezed the hoses. I waited for the fans to come on.
And the baby was happy. . .for a while.
Yesterday I drove to work and the temperature gauge was rock solid, right where it was supposed to be. The trip home started well. About 45 minutes into the drive the baby started to get cranky. The temperature gauge started to fluctuate. The heat out of the vents became inconsistent. Apparently, I missed at least one burp. It can’t be the water pump or the thermostat. I mean, new parts never break . . .never mind. It’s probably the burping.
My car is named Ironman because of the red and gold coloring, the result of salvaging parts off two cars. The car is 20 years old and has 270,000 miles. It’s a really old baby. Problems are expected. And like a new parent, I’ll keep listening to the little whimpers and occasional tantrums.
I just hope the tantrums will remain of the type fixable on a Saturday, preferably when it’s warm.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2016 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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So, Rodney, are you all ready for the big day?
Huh?
Sunday, brother! Valentine’s Day. Are you set?
I debated whether to warn him or not. Evan was newly married. He was still in that first year of marriage where everything is new and wonderful. He was actually excited for Valentine’s Day. We was looking forward to it. We’d worked together for a couple of years although he was in Louisiana and I was in Utah. We talked nearly everyday and on a half dozen occasions we’d ended up in the same state. Normally it was somewhere back east, but occasionally in Salt Lake or his location.
Evan? I’ve been happily married for 28 years. I’m going to share a little bit of hard earned knowledge. You will find that there are three days that a married man has to fear the most every year.
What are those?
Your anniversary, her birthday and Valentine’s Day.
Evan laughed. He thought I was joking. But, I explained.
Most days, if you want to do something special for her, you know, bring her flowers, or a gift or something, it’s totally unexpected. You get to exceed her expectations. You don’t have that luxury on the big three. Your only two options on your anniversary, her birthday and Valentine’s Day are either meeting her expectations, or failing to meet expectations. It’s pretty difficult to exceed expectations on those days.
The best that you can hope for is to break even?
Exactly!
I have the most wonderful wife in the world. I had to convince her to marry me. I cannot remember a time in my adult life when I wasn’t in love with her. She bore three beautiful children who are turning into great adults. She has been my partner in every way as we built our family through adoption. We’ve travelled around the world together to welcome the children we feel that God had waiting for us. My household would be utter chaos without her guiding hand.
I cannot love her anymore than I do today and would do anything for her.
Valentine’s Day fills me with dread. It’s a minefield, full of hidden pressure points that don’t exist on other days. A false step here or there and you’ve unintentionally bruised feelings that will take you until Easter sometimes to make up for. I should also say that much of this pressure is self induced.
I love this woman, I would never want to hurt her. Oh, the card I thought was cute and funny didn’t strike her as serious and romantic? Ouch. (I’m speaking in general here, not talking about yesterday.)
My buddy Evan will figure it out eventually. Relationship coaches will tell you to make everyday like Valentine’s Day. I think that is great advice. Because, every other day, that’s not February 14th, you will be exceeding her expectations. And if you screw up badly enough on the day that really is Valentine’s Day, you might need those other 363 days to make it right. On second thought, make that 361 days. Her birthday and your anniversary don’t count.
Happy Valentine’s Day to my lovely wife. You’ve deserve better, but I’m glad you settled for me.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. 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) 2016 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Well, it has a longer handle, but I think that’s the only one available.
I was at the hardware store for a new 3/8″ ratcheting socket driver. Actually, I was there to exchange a broken one for a new one. The broken one was not holding the ratchet the way that it should. You’ve probably been places to exchange a tool or item you bought because it’s broken.
How long ago did you buy this?
I’m not entirely sure. I think it was about 40 years ago.
You’re the store clerk. What do you do?
For most items, the clerk would laugh, or at the very least tell me that since I had used it, the return policy was void. This clerk did neither.
Here’s the new one. Have a nice day.
The mechanics know exactly what I’m talking about. (BTW, my car is still broken, check in on Monday’s post to hear an update.) The tool I was returning was a Craftsman brand. The story would have been the same if I’d taken a Husky brand back to Home Depot, or if it had been a Snap On.
Tools, good tools, last a really long time. And they are pretty pricey. The ratchet I was getting in exchange was about $25. I could probably find a knock off brand for about $5. So, why pay 5x as much?
Because, you get what you pay for. Twenty-five dollars over fourty years is about $0.65 per year. Not a bad investment. And the guarantee on Craftsman tools stays with the tool. When my kids inherit my tool collection, they will keep that 3/8″ ratcheting socket driver until it wears out. And then they will take it to some hardware store in 2056 and get a new one. Then, my $25 tool, over 80 years will be about $0.35.
When my grandfather passed away, I got his tools. Included was a worn out Craftsman 3/8″ “breaker bar.” I took it to Sears and they handed me a new one, no questions asked.
Buy quality tools. They are a lot cheaper than the knock-off brands.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. 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) 2016 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
