During one of the trips I took to Utah’s Southern desert over the past couple of weeks, I got a chance to see thesepictographs in the San Rafeal Swell area. It’s estimated they are as much as 2000 years old.
My first thought was
What kind of paint doesn’t fade for 2000 years?
And these were painted on a wall with full sun exposure. But, I noticed that on the wall next to these ancient drawings, someone had come along and defaced the wall by physically scratching some graffiti on it. We don’t know who the graffiti artist was, but we do know what gang he was affiliated with: the Fremont gang. Here’s what the unknown tagger “created.”
Computer Science and Information Technology are pretty young disciplines. While there were simple computing machines as far back as the Chinese abacus, the true computer age didn’t start until the 1940’s. The internet didn’t really shed it’s government/academic origins until the 1990’s. We are only now starting to celebrate our history. I recently saw a story about a woman who ended up throwing away a first generation Apple computer. It was worth $200,000.
Despite these stories, the IT industry continues to be a throw away culture. Weird Al Yankovich recorded a parody song “All About the Pentiums”
My new computer’s got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you’ve had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it’s an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that’s great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
We are constantly looking for the next fastest computer, bigger hard drive, smaller flash drive.
In 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation wrote a paper explaining what became known as “Moore’s Law.” He predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year. (Later revised to every two years.) And for the past 50 years, that prediction has held true. That means that in two years, your new computer will potentially be twice as fast as your current computer.
Faster computers mean you can have more complex software. This new software not only runs on the speedier hardware, but comes to expect it; forcing you, as the consumer, to upgrade your hardware if you want to stay current on your software.
And we typically throw away that old hardware. We don’t even go to the trouble of throwing away the old software anymore; we just delete it.
This constant upgrade process has been both a bane and a boon to those of us working in the IT world. Within the next 2 years, virtually all businesses will upgrade their existing computer hardware. Within four years nearly all home users will upgrade. That’s a whole bunch of new computer business. Those of us in IT are in a business where our customers are never static. They are constantly growing, upgrading, replacing.
It’s also the bane of the profession. Like walking up the down escalator, if you don’t keep up, you will quickly fall behind. I was a world expert on Microsoft Exchange back in the 1990’s. That expertise is irrelevant today. It’s really not much more than a slightly interesting anecdote for blog entries.
The IT world really is about
What have you done for me lately?
The graffiti on the sandstone wall in Southern Utah isn’t really viewed as graffiti. In fact, it’s considered a priceless work of art. The carving that the Fremont artist did is known as a petroglyph, and it’s estimated to be 1000 years old. The pictographs were already ancient when the later artist started scratching his image of sheep. But now, a 1000 years later, we look at both of them as equally important.
Just down from the petroglyph was another carving. This one spelling out the name “DAN” in crude block letters. Was it graffiti? Was it defacing an ancient art exhibit? Or was it simply the latest in a millenia-long sequence of artists adding their own touches?
I guess we won’t know for 1000 years.
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 hike is going to be 16 miles. Do you want to grab one of these two liter bottles of water?
No Dad. I’ll just grab another water bottle. We’ll be fine.
My sons set out with the rest of their scout troop for an overnight hike in the San Rafeal Swell in Southern Utah. At 10:00 AM, when they started out it was already 80 degrees. The temperature would touch the mid 90s over the next two days.
The hike was not originally part of the week-long “High Adventure” itinerary. The original plan had been to go rafting in Colorado during the beginning part of the week and then hike Harvard peak during the last two days. Unfortunately, due to the extra-heavy winter snowfall which Colorado got (and which missed Utah, unfortunately) Harvard peak was still covered in snow. A quick Google search found the San Rafeal Swell as an alternate.
Sixteen miles over two days is really not that strenuous for 14 and 15 year old boys. And they had plenty of adult supervision. I was staying at our base camp and was responsible for picking them up at the other end of the hike.
So, what went wrong?
Plenty, including underestimating the toll of hiking in the open during the heat of the day. But, the most serious complication was when they ran out of water. The situation was so dire, that one of the leaders started showing serious signs of dehydration.
Finding that spring literally saved our lives.
The other complication was they underestimated how much it would tire them out to cross the river that many times.
Wait, you guys ran out of water WHILE CROSSING A RIVER?
When Microsoft was trying to recover from a weak Windows Vista launch they polled their users to find out what they should keep and what they should drop from the Windows suite. They received the following feedback.
- Get rid of all those pre-installed utilities that we never use
- Include a video editor
The irony of course, was that the video editing software known as Windows Movie Maker shipped with Vista, (and previous versions of Windows.) People had become so used to simply deleting the “utilities” that they didn’t bother to even figure out what they were.
How many times have you heard a friend say this?
I wish my phone had the ability to do this cool thing.
Yeah, that’s included as part of the standard Android OS.
It’s called “Not being able to see the forest for the trees.” We are so focused on “finding” a solution that we miss the solution that is already in front of us.
Why didn’t you guys drink the river water?
That river is really dirty.
But, you have water filters, right?
Oh sure, but trying to purify the river water would have clogged the filters.
I wasn’t on the hike, so I can’t speak directly to the situation, but the thought that occured to me was “How thirsty do you have to be to be willing to drink dirty water?” Or to use a water filter that you know will only give you a single day’s use?
They had a point. If you put water that is full of dirt through most water filters, they will quickly become clogged. However, there are a couple of techniques that will help. First, you can strain the water first. A neckerchief or even a t-shirt makes a pretty good seive. The other option is to take an empty water bottle, fill it with your dirty water and let it sit. Eventually the dirt will start to settle to the bottom.
Or, you can take your dad’s advice and carry extra water.
blockquote>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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(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Hey Rodney, do you have anything we can use to take the lid off a hot kettle?
Let me check Hermoine’s magic bin.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermoine Granger owned a beaded handbag. Throughout the book she pulled multiple things out of it, to help her friends. It’s a useful thing to have.
I took one camping. Mine was somewhat bigger than Hermoine’s. . .and not as purple.
You should have one in business.
Here’s some of what went into the one I took camping:
- Nine 2 liter bottles of water
- 100 ft climbing rope
- 50 ft nylon rope
- Leather gloves
- 6 pair of nylon gloves
- Hatchet
- Several four inch long sections of 2×4
- Coleman gas lantern
- BBQ lighter (The long one)
- Three freeze dried meals
- Seasoning bag with salt, pepper, lemon pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, ketchup and mayo
- Frying pan with lid
- Pot with lid
- Metal pancake turner, spoon
- First Aid kit
- Extra socks
- Compass
- Tin cup and tin bowl
- Camping grade forks and spoons
- #10 can with handle and lid
- Contractor grade plastic garbage bags
- Roll of paper towels
What’s makes this a “magic” bin?
The fact that none of this stuff was on the list of what I was supposed to bring. I could have left the entire bin at home and no one would have said, “How come you didn’t bring the . . . .” But, each of those items could be cruicial to a successful campout. I used a few of them.
Water
We camped in the desert. If you come back from a desert camp and you don’t end pouring out water, it meant you didn’t take enough. You should have the water you need and then a reserve supply. You can survive without a lot of things in the desert. Water isn’t one of them. I always bring my own.
During one of the hikes I didn’t go on, our boys ran out of water.
Leather gloves
We had stoves for cooking the meals. The leaders brought pans, utensils, food, but forgot something to allow you to lift a hot pan off the stove. Those leather gloves became our potholders. (I think if they actually sold potholders shaped like leather work gloves, more men would take up cooking.)
Pieces of 2×4 (and a hatchet)
Fire. It keeps you warm. (Desert nights can be cold.) It gives you a place to gather. It provides a natural meeting place. We brought plenty of wood, but how do you get from wood to fire? The easiest way I’ve ever found is to take a 4″ long 2×4 and split it for kindling. The wood is well cured and splits easily. And if you get it small enough you can literally light the wood on fire with a single match. No paper required.
Nylon Gloves
On our river trip, several people ended up with very sore hands by the end of the first day. Holding a wet paddle for several hours will wear on your skin. I became a very popular fellow when I broke out the nylon gloves.
So, what would a business “magic bin” look like? It depends on your business. Every computer guy I know has at least a couple of bins full of old computer parts.
Hey Phil, you don’t by chance have an old 2400 baud modem do you?
Let me check. . . Yeah, I’ve got a USRobotics internal or a Hayes external, which one do you need?
Every programmer I know has a collection of bits of utility code that she’s written.
Michelle, do you by chance have a bubble sort utility?
Sure, I have one in Java and one in Python.
Car guys have garages full of car parts and obscure tools.
John, do you happen to have a 6″ 10mm bolt that is a lefthanded thread?
No, but I’ve got an 8″ one we can cut down.
Every job is different. And if you’ve done the job long enough you start collecting bits and pieces that you might need someday. You never use all of it, of course. There were many things in my magic bin that I didn’t use. I’m sure that Hermoine had more in her bag than she actually needed. But, the guiding principle in assembling my magic bin was “If I had to just rely on myself for the camp what would I need?
I’m pretty sure that’s what Hermoine thought too.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Rodney, those holes in the dirt we saw earlier?
Yeah?
They aren’t wasps. They are Hobo spiders. We just saw one about the size of a softball climb back into a hole.
Lovely.
I’m camping in the desert again. This time it’s with my two youngest sons. We are at Zions National Park. Well, we will be tomorrow. Tonight we are in a wide spot in the sagebrush. Ten boys, three leaders and thousands and thousands of bugs. The light I’m typing by attracks them, of course, but there are more than the moths and the termites.
Remember your childhood? Do you have fond memories of the time before college and jobs and life intruded? Was it really a simpler time, or does memory soften the edges? Perhaps a little of both.
I grew up in Olympia, WA. I went camping in the great Pacific Northwest. I got rained on. . .a lot. But, you know what Western Washington lacked?
Poisonous spiders. We had Black Widows, but they really aren’t agressive or even highly toxic. They just look scary.
We also lacked poisonous snakes. Garter snakes. That was it. We used to catch them and scare the girls with them. Okay, MAYBE I lost one under the refrigerator once, but that was hardly my fault.
Bugs. We had mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes. But, that was really the extent of what we had to worry about.
You know what Utah has?
Spiders: Hobos are kind of bad. But, the worst are the Brown Recluse. They can make your skin die and fall off.
Snakes: mostly just your garden variety rattlesnakes. They love to sun themselves on rock ledges. If you are climbing, always look before you put your hand down. No, they do not always rattle before they strike.
Scorpions: Sure, their sting is sort of like a wasp, but they are scorpions!
The internet used to be a far, far different place when I was younger. I’m didn’t actually have the internet when I was a kid. It came later, but it wasn’t as scary as today. It used to be that you could pretty much go anywhere without fear of catching a virus. You could click on any link without fear of losing your identity. You could engage in any discussion without worrying that you might be talking to a pedophile.
It was simpler. It was safer. It was kind of like childhood.
Of course, there was no ecommerce to speak of. To look at a picture, you had to download multiple files at 1200 baud (That’s about a thousand times slower than your cable modem.) And after downloading the files you had to manually stich them back together.
People didn’t share as many cat pictures.
It was safer, but it wasn’t better.
I have a job that allows me to be in Colorado rafting with my oldest boys one week and in Virgin, UT (yes, that’s actually the name of the town we’re nearest) camping with two other sons the following weekend. My dad never took me camping. I don’t fault him for that, but it just was something he didn’t do. My boys will grow up with countless memories of being in the desert with me, being in the river with me, hiking, camping, eating early morning oatmeal mixed with bits of sand.
My childhood camping experiences were safer. But, this is better.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Help!
My son was drowning and I was wading through molasses. Really it was only chest deep river water, but my feet might as well have been glued to the streambed. I couldn’t reach him.
HELP!
The water was over his head and he couldn’t keep above the surface. And I couldn’t reach him.
Today was day two of our mini-three day outing with the boy scouts. My two twelve year old sons were on this trip.
We drove to Zions National Park in Southern Utah and hiked up the river for about three hours. The trip is interesting because the river is a great equalizer.
At the beginning, the river is wide and slow. We passed and were passed by kids in flipflops, college guys in swimsuits, girls in bikinis, dads with babies strapped to their chests. But, the farther up the canyon we got, the narrower and swifter the water became.
I’ve been involved in several startups in my life. The first was watching my mother start a CPA firm. She went back to school as a married mother of three, and then started her CPA business in our living room. Starting a business is easy. Keeping it alive is hard. There were a lot of lean years. Eventually, she grew the business. She hired staff. She rented, and then bought a building. BLISS CPA grew because she put in lots of long hours to make it work. Eventually she retired and sold it to my brother. Today, Bliss & Skeen CPA is still operating in the same small city I grew up in.
I helped launch a company called RESMARK. We made reservation software for the rafting industry. I ran it for two years until we released our first version. As company president, I earned the smallest salary of anyone on the staff. My job was to hire the best programmers I could afford and drive the schedule. Today, if you scheduled a rafting trip down the Colorado, or the Arkansas or the Deleware rivers, there is a good chance you may be using the software we wrote.
My friend Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary fame just celebrated 15 years of uninterrupted daily updates to his award winning comic. He went from not being able to draw very well to having an entire business devoted to his intellectual property.
What’s this have to do with rafting?
Just that the river was easy when we started. Everyone was hiking up. But, eventually it got more difficult. Many of the river walkers turned back. We pushed on.
Starting out the river was between ankle and knee deep. An hour up the canyon and we were swimming sections to get across. The canyon walls soared hundreds of feet straight up, and at times it was a scant 8 feet across.
Continuing even farther, we got to places that became increasingly more challenging, scrambling over waterfalls and at times climbing up the canyon wall itself, until we reached a section where the only way through was a narrow section of river that was about 20 feet long. The water, while calm, was deep and very cold.
The scoutleader went first. With him at one end, and the another leader at the other end, my role, as it had been all day was sweeper. I was the caboose. Most of the boys swam successfully, if a bit cold from one leader to the other. Until it was my son’s turn. He’s a good swimmer for a 12 year old. But, the water was a shock. Half way through he started to flounder. The first time his head went under we weren’t too concerned. But, he came up sputtering water and crying for help. He sank a second time as we struggled toward him through the water. As he kicked his way to the surface a third time, the scoutmaster extended a hiking pole; a literal lifeline.
The only casualty were his glasses.
As a Dad going on a campout with your children, my wife had only one requirement: Bring them all back. Now that my son was safe, I had fulfilled the letter of the law, but if she had to go buy him new glasses, I’m pretty sure she would see that as a violation of the spirit of it.
The scoutmaster was the first to dive for them.
This water really is cold.
He forced his was down to the bottom three times before the cold drove him from the water. Next up was the assistant scoutmaster. I started shedding some of my gear in preparation for my turn. We figured we each had three dives before the threat of hypothermia would force us to stop. Apparently the river gods were on our side. On his second attempt, the assistant scoutmaster emerged with glasses in hand.
Major crisis and minor crisis averted. We all breathed a sigh of reflief.
And then we heard the peal of thunder.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m thinking about making a rule that you managers are not allowed to bring your laptops to my team meetings.
Why?
Because you spend your entire time staring at them instead of paying attention to the meeting!
Yes, and that’s a good thing.
My manager didn’t think so at first, but we convinced him.
As many of you know I’ve been camping with my sons and their scout troop this week. (Actually, they’re 15 so it’s a Varsity Scout Team, but you’d only care about that if you were involved in scouting, and I’m going to go back to the story now. . .)
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. I remember when the first Walkman came out. How cool was that? You could take your music with you. Sure, you put on the headphones and basically tuned out the world, but you could bring your tunes! It wasn’t very much longer before Gameboy came out and now you could sit and play video games while listening to music and completely blocking out those around you no matter where you went.
We had a strict rule on campouts.
NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES
Later, when I became a leader, it was my turn to confiscate MP3 players, and iPods and then cellphones.
On the trip this week, I realized something. “No electronic devices” is a bad rule. It should be banished to the place that “situps are good for you” and “eat your broccoli” rules got banished to.
On our campout and trip there was definitely a place for electronic devices.
Phones
We were way out of cell phone range. We were in central Colorado surrounded by soaring majestic 14,000 foot peaks, and graced by raging rivers. Do you know what you take away when you take away someone’s cell phone?
Their camera. We wanted boys to make memories, so it only makes sense to give them access to their #1 memory making tool. Besides none of them had watches anymore, and we wanted them to be on time.
GPS
Our group got lost in a canyon that had one entrance and one exit. The problem was, it was 16 miles long. The guy with the map kept saying, “I think it’s just another couple miles.” It wasn’t. It was at least 5 miles and not knowing where we were caused some serious issues with water access and rest. Sure would have been nice to have a GPS unit.
Texting
When the group got lost in the canyon they were able to text a leader who didn’t go on the hike and change the pickup time from 1:00PM to 9:00AM. We also texted pictures to the nervous moms.
Scriptures
This was a church sponsored event. We started and ended the day with daily devotionals and scripture reading. Many of the boys brought books, but several, (including me) read off their phones.
GoPro
We were rafting one of the most exciting rivers in the country. It was a once in a lifetime trip for some of the boys. All together we captured the trip on three separate GoPro cameras. The video will be spliced together and included in our end of the year presentation.
Tools. That’s really what our electronic devices are. At least it’s what they should be. Scouting is changing. As scout leaders we also need to change. None of the boys seemed overly obsessed with their device. We didn’t have to pry it out of their hands when it was time to go raft, or eat, or hike. Each of the devices was important and useful, and even necessary.
Of course, there was also this writer guy who insisted on bringing his iPad. . .and keyboard.
At their best, devices help us accomplish more. And that’s what my manager figured out about his team meeting. Each manager was responsible for a different area. When I was delivering my update on the email system, the guy in charge of directory was taking care of emails from his team. When it was his turn to report to the manager, I ignored him and jumped into my email stream.
Technology is part of our lives. Those who are best adjusted simply use the right tool for the job, be it a camera, GPS, ebook or some writer and his iPad.
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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LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Left of the rock, right?
Right.
Wait, right of rock?
No, left!
Right!
It was one of my first rafting trips. I was with my brothers-in-law. We were rafting the Green river in Washington on a chilly day in April. Bob was calling the order. He was at the back of the raft steering and giving orders for who needed to paddle. The six of us trusted him. . . perhaps a little too much.
Yesterday was our first day on the Arkansas River in Colorado with our scout troop. I was in a boat with my son, some of the other scout leaders Jim and Jacob. Jacob manned the oars. When you go rafting, there are two types of boats you can take: oars or paddle. Oar boats have a set of oars and an oarsman. He sits on a metal frame and directs the paddlers. The metal frame sits right in the middle of the boat and is apparently designed to inflict the maximum pain on those people sitting around it when they encounter rapids. Paddle boats are the same size rubber rafts without the metal frame. The guide sits at the back of the boat and steers.
As we pushed off into the Arkansas river we did a little practicing with our strokes.
RIGHT SIDE!
meant everyone on the right side of the boat paddle.
LEFT SIDE!
Same thing for those on the left. There are a couple other commands like, Backpaddle and highside, but it’s really a pretty simple structure. The issue you run into is when you are announcing which side of a rock you are going around.
RIGHT SIDE!
means, we are going past the rock on the right side. But, to do that you have to give the stroke command of
LEFT SIDE!
so it will turn the boat to the right.
It can get confusing if the caller isn’t very clear on whether he’s calling stroke commands or directions.
The first few rapids were minor. Class II which meant they barely rippled. Before too long though we hit the first Class III rapid. Class III’s are bigger waves and it’s important to have everyone in the boat pulling the same direction.
The rapids had a rock in the middle. As we approached it, Jacob called
RIGHT SIDE!
Jim, assuming that Jacob wanted to the right of the rock, called
LEFT SIDE!
As you can imagine, both sides started paddling with all our might as the two leaders kept yelling conflicting commands. We bounced off the rock and spun around to the left as we came out of the rapids.
Hey guys, I don’t care which one of you calls the commands, but we can only have one Master of the Boat.
Jim realized that as the oarsman, it was Jacob’s role to call commands.
Everybody listen to Jacob.
We see this in business. The team manager says,
We need to reduce the load on our support staff, so agents should be handling their own issues as much as possible before engaging support.
Then the director sends out an email saying,
We need to return to service as quickly as possible when there’s an issue. Agents should engage support at the first hint of an issue.
Huh?
It’s important to only have one Master of the Boat. The tendency is to defer to the director since she has the bigger office. If she has all the information needed to make a decision that makes sense. But, sometimes the team manager, because he is closer to the point the rubber raft meets the road, has a better plan. Regardless of which one ultimately is the final decision maker, your organization has to pick one.
Once you’ve decided on a single Master of the Boat you can still run aground if he doesn’t lead. As my brothers-in-law and I made our way down the chilly Green River, Bob was our Master of the Boat. And he was doing a good job. We’d made it through some strong Class III rapids successfully.
We approached a large house sized rock squarly in the middle of the river. The river split and dropped a couple of feet before rejoining on the other side of the rock. It wasn’t even difficult enough to be classified as a real rapid. The water was smooth but fast.
We’re doing down the left side. RIGHT SIDE paddle.
We got perfectly lined up on the left hand channel and then. . .For some unknown reason Bob decided at the last minute he wanted to take us down the right side of the rock. It was too late. He turned the boat and managed to get halfway back across the river. The face of the rock had a gentle slope to it. We hit that gentle slope broadside. It lifted up the left side of the raft and dumped all of us out the right side.
The water was just cold as we’d feared. Paddles went everywhere. We bounced off the boat and the rock and spilled down both sides of the river sputtering and trying to keep our heads above water.
Pick a leader who will speak with a single unified voice. But, make sure he (or she) has a clear message and doesn’t keep changing direction.
I’ve never set foot in a raft with Bob again.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Not a position I expected to be in. Not today, not ever. I was walking along a highway next to the Arkansas river in central Colorado with two other men from our group. We were all wearing wetsuits, and river shoes. With each passing car we stuck our thumbs out and attempted to convince them to stop.
The things we do for our kids.
Today we got on the water. We had 15 boys, 7 leaders and four boats.
The #1 object when whitwater rafting is not to die. Seriously, whitewater rafting is one of the few recreational sports where death is a real possibility. I’ve known of people who died on this river. And we found out later that two people died today on the Colarado river.
Whitewater rafting requires that just about everything go right.
Preparation
The first step is you have to have the right equipment. If you’ve ever floated on an innertube down a river, you might be tempted to think that rafting is similar. Only in the sense that riding the gocarts at the amusement park is similar to driving in a NASCAR race.
First we all had wetsuits. The water we were floating on was snow just yesterday. It might warm up by the time it actually reaches Arkansas, but here in central Colorado it was cold. We all had close-toed shoes. Most of us had specially designed river shoes. They have mesh on top and have a good grip on the bottom to get traction on the rubber boat. They weren’t so good for walking down the highway.
Lifejackets, called Personal Flotation Devices or PFDs in rafting terms, are mandatory. The same with helmets. Many of us also had gloves. Typing on a keyboard all day doesn’t really prepare you for wielding a paddle.
Guides
We were fortunate to have several members of our group who had rafted this river a lot. You need an experienced guide in charge of each boat. You put your best guide in the lead boat. He picks a line through the rapids. You put the second best guide in the last boat. His job is to pick up any swimmers; rafters who failed to stay in the raft. The rest of your guides follow the leader and typically take his line through the rapids.
Scouting
Whitewater rafting is long periods of calm punctuated by periods of intense terror. It’s important to scout the river. Water levels change daily. The Arkansas was running about 2400 cubic feet per second today. Picture 2400 basketballs going past every second. That’s going to affect the rapids. The guides really want to know what the rapids look like before they see them from the boat for the first time. Especially in a Class IV rapid.
Rapids are divided in to six categories.
- Class I rapids aren’t really rapids at all. It’s calm water. Like in your bathtub, just colder.
- Class II rapids are anything that has a little bit of curl to it. You don’t really ride Class II rapids.
- Class III rapids is where it starts to get interesting. Most of our rapids were Class III. These have big waves, but generally you can take any line through the rapids and stay in the boat.
- Class IV rapids are bigger than Class III and require you take a particular line through the rapids. If you fail to take the right line, you are going swimming. . .or dying. But, probably just swimming.
- Class V rapids are extremely difficult and typically only attempted by kayakers, not big rubber rafts like us.
- Class VI rapids are impassible. Niagra Falls is a VI, as is anything that you cannot successfully navigate.
We did pretty well today. Everyone mostly stayed in the boat. But, it wasn’t without injury. At lunch we pulled into the shore to break out our ham sandwiches. My boys were in three different boats. The son who was with me did great. The son with the lead boat did great, other than falling out at one point. My son with the trailing boat broke his arm. . or his collarbone. . .or maybe dislocated his shoulder.
He’s a tough kid who played rugby this spring. Getting out of the boat at the lunch stop, his entire body was tense as he tried to cushion his shoulder. Even laying a finger on his shoulder brought a quick intake of breath and tears to his eyes. We had a physical therapist and an anesthesiologist among our youth leaders. They didn’t have access to drugs, but they had enough medical training to evaluate his injury. They told me it didn’t look good.
Son, I think you’re done for the day.
No, Dad. No. I’m pretty sure if you let me move to the other side of the boat I can still row with my left hand.
Well, I didn’t raise any wimps, I guess.
Nope. You’re done. We’ll fix a sling and you may be headed to the hospital tonight.
Ever seen a coach bench a player and that player thinks he can still perform? Yeah, that was my son. But, we had a problem. We had intended to go another couple of hours. The rafts averaged 3-4 MPH. We were still 10 miles away from our cars. What to do? Yep, we hiked up to the road and stuck out our thumbs.
I realized I had never hitchhiked before.
Cars weren’t stopping.
We started to walk. Jack was lagging.
It’s too far to walk, fellas.
Well, walking is better than staying here and not getting a ride.
Eventually a guy named Sam in a Honda Passport pulled over. He was a Colorado transplant from New Jersey. We got the impression this wasn’t the first time he’d seen similarly dressed hitchhikers.
Overall, not the opening day that we’d planned on. But, tomorrow is another day on the river.
Beats working.
(I’m on a 5 day hiking/rafting trip with three of my sons. This week’s entries will focus a little more on that and a little less on business.)
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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You boys will want to get into a sleeping bag.
I’m fine, Dad. It’s a very warm night.
Okay, but it might not be so warm in the morning.
I think I’ll be fine with my blankets.
How do you share your experience? How do you help your teams or employees learn the lessons you’ve learned?
If you are like me, you talk. (Or you write.) I love to tell stories and I really like to help those I work with. I’ve had some modest success in my career and I want to share that.
It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work with kids and it often doesn’t work with employees.
I’ve been camping all my life. I started as an 11 year old scout. I camped in the rain forests that are the Pacific NorthWest. I’ve camped in the deserts of Utah and the mountains of Colorado. I’ve camped up and down the California and Oregon coasts. I have a little experience.
I’m on a week long campout with my three oldest sons We spent last night in the San Rafeal Swell in Southern Utah. It was 95 degrees yesterday. It was still in the 70’s at 10:30 pm when we turned in. Here’s what I do before I go to bed.
- I change into clean dry socks
- I wear a stocking cap
- I change out of my clothes into pajamas
And I have a 80 year old 25 lbs, down-filled, canvas covered sleeping bag. It’s fantastic. Not great for hiking, but awesome for car camping. It was my grandfather’s.
My son grabbed a few blankets and laid down in the car. We were literally car camping last night because the rest of the boys were on a hike that we had skipped.
I admit it, I was a little warm when I climbed into the backseat of the van and into my bag. I wasn’t too worried. It’s pretty easy to unzip your bag a little.
I once had a young programmer who worked for me. He was brilliant. Seriously, he was one of the smartest people I know. I needed him to build a website that would tie into our reservation system.
Dalis, this is kind of a big job, I don’t want you taking it on if you’re worried about being able to complete it.
No problem. I’ve got it covered.
You know we need it by July 1st, right?
Yep, I’m on it
Dave was not a young programmer. Dave was an old programmer. Dave and I talked about the website.
What do you think, Dave? Is he up to it.
I don’t know. He talks a good game and he’s been solid on the coding he’s done on the other projects. But, I just worry he’s not seeing the complexities that the website is going to need.
Have you talked to him?
Of course, I’ve talked to him. I’ve talked to him so much he’s getting annoyed. He says he’s got it handled and to stop bugging him about it.
I hope he’s right.
Me too.
You probably have guessed how this story ends. Dalis didn’t finish the website by July 1st. When he got into it, the coding was way more complex than anything he’d attempted. Sadly, we had to let him go, because he also blamed everyone but himself for missing the deadline.
Why wasn’t Dave able to convince him that it was too complex?
Because some lessons have to be learned by experience.
I woke up at 6:00 AM this morning. It was chilly out. I found my son rummaging through the camp gear looking for his sleeping bag.
Unlike Dalis, my son understood his mistake.
It got really cold last night. I should have got my sleeping bag.
Tell you what, I’m up, you can go crawl into mine if you want. I think it’s still warm.
Like Goldilocks at the home of the bears in woods, first he was too hot, then he was too cold. And finally he was just right. He slept until 9:00 AM.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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My system broke today. Apparently in a pretty nasty way. I don’t care. In fact, caring about it would be a complete waste of my time.
For the past 15 months, I have lived and breathed my job. (Work/Life Balance Is Overrated.) I’ve been on call 24×7. I’ve taken calls at church. I’ve taken calls during kids’ concerts. I’ve taken calls in the middle of the night. I’ve even taken calls while on vacation. The only place I refused to take calls was on an airplane.
Oh, I could, if I chose to. I could just pay for wifi, log into Skype and forward my cell phone. It is the one place I drew the line. Until this week.
I’m writing this by the light of a coleman lantern. We’re camped next to the San Rafeal river. Night comes quickly in the desert. It was 90 degrees earlier today. Slightly cooler near the water. Once the sun dipped below the horizon, the temperature followed suit.
Utah’s Southern desert has a unique beauty. It’s a harsh landscape, replete with dry gullies framing table top mesas. It’s easy to think of the desert as a dead place. And the environment is certainly harsh. The rivers are marked by thin bands of green meandering down the draws and gullies. But, get more than a few dozen feet from the water’s edge and the verdant green melts away to be replaced by sagebrush and greasewood. Not even the scrub oak of Northern Utah can withstand the blazing heat and the miserly rainfall.
But, the desert is far from a dead place. It’s teeming with it’s own fauna. My son and I looked for as many different evidences of animals as we could find.
- We saw lizards darting across the hot sand, feet bouncing off the ground
- A circling hawk cast a hungry eye on our little four footed friend
- An army of ants were quick to attack any stray piece of our lunch that happened to spill
- Beetles scuttled across the ground in search of whatever beetles search for
- A snake basked in the warmth of the dirt road we drove down
- This is all range land, and cows wandered along the road side, seemingly oblivious to the heat
- Wild turkeys called to each other through the underbrush around the river
- As night fell, coyotes offered questioning yips just out of view of our campsite
- Gnats and mosquitos came out with the cooling temperatures, and we saw bats come out to hunt them
Moonrise preceded sunset by about 45 minutes. I know that everyone sees the same moon, but maybe it’s the elevation that makes it appear so much bigger and brighter from the desert.
The stars winked in one by one, mostly overshadowed by the brilliant moon. The mesas that during the day had been so bright and colorful, with alternating layers of red and gray rocks, faded to pale silhouettes. The night sounds surrounded us. Bats and bugs, crickets and coyotes.
Today is the first day of a 5 day High Adventure trip with three of my sons and their scout troop. After a night in the beauty of the San Rafeal swell, tomorrow we head to Colorado for three days of whitewater rafting on the Arkansas river.
Yes, one of my systems broke today. I can get just enough cell coverage for my phone to download my email, wether I want it to or not. And I glanced at the status emails that started this morning at 6:30 and are still being sent at 10:00 pm. On a normal day, I’d be working that issue. I’d be taking those calls and I’d care very much about the time we lost.
Today is not a normal day. Not by a long shot. I cared about a lot of things today. Broken IT systems didn’t make the cut.
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) 2015 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved