If you want someone to pay you for something, don’t do it for free
Barbra Streisand is one of the greatest recording artists of all time. Her accolades are nearly without peer.
She’s an EGOT, one of few people to win an Emmey, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. She won two Oscars, one for best actress for Funny Girl and one for best song for Evergreen. She’s the only woman to win the Golden Globe for best director, again for Yentl.
She’s the only person to record a number one album in each of the last six decades. She has the most number one albums of any female artist. Sh had nine Golden Globes. She has sold over 150M albums.
Do you know what she doesn’t like to do?
Sing.
Seriously. She doesn’t particularly like the sound of her voice. Telling an interviewer in a recent Mirror article,
If I sang happy birthday, I’d sound lousy.
I was thinking about Ms. Streisand this morning as we sang hymns in church.
I’m a writer. I’ve had a couple of books published, for which I got paid. I’ve written for magazines, for which I’ve also gotten paid. My first agent explained that if you want to get paid for something, you shouldn’t give it away for free.
In the internet-age, everyone can be an author, and very few of us get paid. Sure, some do, but most people who create content on the internet do not. Internet “exposure” doesn’t count. No one really wants to pay for content. But, they are happy to “give you exposure.” Saying you’ll work for the exposure is just another way of saying you’ll work for free.
As much as I appreciate people coming to my little corner of the internet every day M-F and reading the sribbles I put out, the fact is I don’t get paid for this. I don’t even get the advertising money.
So, am I breaking my rule? Am I giving things away for free and precluding the ability to get paid? I don’t think so.
I do break my rule in one area. I write for my local monthly newspaper. It’s an opinion column. I write it for free. And it means it would be hard for me to ever insist to my editor that I should start getting paid for it.
But, this blog doesn’t break the rule. I’m not doing it for free. That might sound strange since I just said I don’t get paid for it. But, working for free assumes that I’m working for someone else’s benefit. That I’m creating a product and giving it to someone else and not getting compensated for it.
The blog may be free, but I’m not working for free. . .if that makes sense.
What’s this have to do with Barbra Streisand and church? She admits she doesn’t enjoy singing. It’s not something that relaxes her. Again from the Mirror article,
I never sing unless I have to. I don’t sing around the house. Singins is like work to me, it’s professional. It’s something I do. It’s not cathartic – it’s the opposite. I don’t go around singing.
It reminds me of my daughter when she was in high school. She got a 5 on the AP Calculus test. I suggested she study a STEM topic in college,
Dad, I’m good at math. . .I just don’t like it.
What if you were sitting next to Barbra Steisand in church? Would you enjoy it? I love her voice. I can’t imagine anything better than joining her in singing “Nearer My God To Thee” or “How Great Thou Art.” But, to her it wouldn’t be. She would be giving something away for free that she gets paid for. It would be work.
Some people will sing because they enjoy it, church, home, in the car, it doesn’t matter. They get intrinsic value. It’s cathartic. Others of us write for the same reason. Just because we aren’t getting paid doesn’t mean we are working for free.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Brent Taylor: Photo courtesy of Military Times
Brent Taylor was mayor of North Ogden, Utah. It located about 30 miles North of Salt Lake City. It’s just a little North of the city of Ogden.
His birthday is tomorrow, July 6. He would have been 40 years old. I say would have been because tragically he was killed in Afghanistan back in November. You see, Mayor Taylor was also Major Taylor, a member of the Utah Army National Guard. He served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan.
After Major Taylor’s death, not only his family, but his entire community mourned. One of the many tributes offered to him was from an organization called Follow The Flag. They took Big Betsy, a 75x155ft American flag to North Ogden and flew it in Coldwater Canyon. Big Betsy is the largest free-flying American flag in the world.
Big Betsy has travelled around the greater Utah area being displayed at baseball games and rodeos. It’s been carried in parades. But, it’s real home is stretched across Grove Creek Canyon in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
When the people at Follow The Flag heard about Major Taylor, they were happy to send Big Betsy North to help pay their respects. The community of North Ogden was touched by the gesture. She really is a magnificent sight stretched across a rock canyon blowing in the breeze. The community was inspired to start their own chapter of Follow The Flag.
The raised the money to buy their own flag. It’s a copy of Big Betsy, 75×155 feet. They named it The Major to honor the mayor and the soldier. It was scheduled to fly for the first time this fall on Veterans day.
Well, like I said, tomorrow is Major Taylor’s 40th birthday. His widow spoke on July 4th at the Dawn’s Early Light celebration in Pleasant Grove. She talked about her husband. She talked about how much it meant to her when Kyle Fox, and the Follow The Flag organization displayed the flag. It was an emotional moment.
And Big Betsy unfurled right on cue. It was a beautiful site. It was a beautiful morning. And a beautiful start to an Independence day.
It didn’t last. In the afternoon a microburst came through. Microbursts are exactly what they sound like: a very contained explosion of wind and rain. Winds whipped through Pleasant Grove at 30-40mph. They swirled, blowing North to South and then South to North. The explosion of weather caught everyone by surprise, including the people responsible for tending the Big Betsy stretched across the canyon. The damage was extensive and irrepairable.
A damaged Big Betsy hangs forlorn after a microburst damaged her
The Follow The Flag team was distraught. Kyle and his team made the difficult decision that Big Betsy had taken her last flight. But, what to do about a flag for the canyon? They have a smaller version called Little Betsy.
And then, they got a phone call. It was from the North Ogden chapter of Follow The Flag. They offered to bring The Major down and let him take the place of Big Betsy in Grove Creek Canyon.
Big Betsy will be retrieved and repaired. She’ll be used as a display flag. She’ll do duty at the rodeos and the baseball games. My friend Eric Scott described it as “retired to light duty.”
There’s currently a GoFundMe for replacing Big Betsy. Flags that size are between $15,00 and $20,000. You can donate here.
Hopefully she’ll be ready to go by Independence Day 2020. For this year, The Major will fill in.
The Major flying over Grove Creek Canyon with our broadcast trailer in the foreground.
And it’s only fitting that The Major will be flying on the mayor’s birthday.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
The day, this day of days, dawned bright and beautiful. We rousted our kids out of bed in the predawn morning and took them up to the mouth of Grove Creek Canyon to witness the unfurling of the largest free flying American flag in the world, called Big Betsy. She’s 75 feet wide by 155 feet long.
Last year, there was a problem when the flag was supposed to deploy. It ripped. And the Follow The Flag team had to use the local football field to repair it.
This morning, I asked Kyle Fox, the founder and head of the Follow The Flag organization if the flag was going to deploy correctly. I was joking when I asked it, but he was deadly serious when he answered,
One hundred percent guaranteed.
True to his prediction, shortly after 7:00AM, right on cue, the flag unfurled beautifully. It was a brilliant start to an wonderful Independence Day.
We did holiday things. We went to the reservoir. We bought food for a BBQ. And this afternoon as we started to prepare for our dinner and fireworks, the wind started to blow. And then it blew harder. And it blew harder still. For nearly an hour the wind rushed down from the North, swirled and then rushed back again. And right behind it came the rain. Huge pelting drops. The kind that hurts when it hits you. The kind that can drench you in mere moments.
And then, just like that, the storm was past. But, what destruction lay behind it in it’s path? Not a horrible amount on our street. Although, I worried my young maple trees might blow over. I did leave a car window down and got drenched going out to roll it up.
We cooked our burgers on the stove and baked chicken and dogs in the oven. Corn on the cob, watermelon, ice cream and cookies.
It was right in the middle of preparing dinner that the storm came through. It knocked out the radio broadcast we have set up for Follow The Flag.
My neighbor called me to say the power to our trailer was out. As we made our way to the trailhead, we had a great view of Big Betsy. The flag hung awkwardly as it bunched to one side of the canyon. No longer flowing freely. And a large gash extended from the base of the flag up nearly half way to the middle.
She hung ragged and limp. Forelorn stretched across the canyon. It was clearly broken. And as it turned out, it was beyond repair.
Tomorrow morning at 5:00AM, Big Betsy will come down for the last time. In her place will be another large flag. It’s called The Major. It was purchased to fly across Ogden Utah’s Coldwater Canyon. The Major is literally Big Betsy’s twin.
Big Betsy will be replaced. How, is still to be decided. Maybe it will be a GoFundMe. Maybe someone will step in and donate the $15,000 it cost to make. Maybe the community will do bake sales and cookie drives.
And that’s an interesting metaphor for our country: the flag may be damaged, but it’s not about the flag. It’s about what it represents. And that won’t change.
Happy Independence Day to those in the United States. And to everyone else, happy Thursday.
This post has been edited to explain that The Major is Big Betsy’s twin and is not yet flying in Ogden.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Question: how do you keep electronics from overheating when sitting in a steel cargo trailer, in the middle of a field, in Utah, in July?
Last year, we tried fans. We have electricity. Of course, otherwise the electronics would simply be so many silicone chips sitting on table. Last year every afternoon the electronics would overheat and shut down. We’d have to open up the trailer, air it out and then restart the Raspberry Pi.
Over the winter we strategized about how to keep the chips cool. We knew we’d be back in the field at the mouth of Grove Creek Canyon in the first week of July.
We thought of several ideas. Most of them impractical or too expensive. We considered building a “box” that included an air conditioner inside it. We considered putting an AC inside our trailer with the exhaust pumped outside. It’s not my trailer, so I’m limited on how much I can modify it to accomodate my annual summer project.
We finally hit on what seemed like the perfect solution: refrigerator! I had an old mini-fridge. It was the perfect size to store the radio transmitter and the Raspberry pi. We drilled a hole in the front of the door to feed the cords through and it was perfect!
The first day we had it up was a couple of days ago. And eventually the fridge decided it was just too hot to try to keep its cool. The compressor was hot enough to the touch to cause blisters. So, we unplugged the refrigerator and the temperature inside immediately started to rise.
Now what? The fridge would provide some insulation from the heat inside the trailer, but the electronics themselves generated heat. That heat was being trapped inside the sealed refrigerator. I wondered if I’d be buying a new fridge just so we could cut holes in it. The prospect wasn’t appealing. We are self-funding this entire project and I had to lay out $40 to license a waving American flag clip.
Finally I opted for the most obvious choice of all. . .ice. I bought a block of ice and moved things around so that it fit into the bottom of the fridge. The ice would melt, of course, but all the wires were above the hole we’d cut for the cords. And the cords were all-weather insulated. Any melted water would (hopefully!) drain out the bottom of the fridge.
Today it was about 95 degrees in Pleasant Grove. Inside our trailer it was about 160 degrees. And inside our ice packed refrigerator? Well, the Raspberry Pi reported its temperature as a temperate 120 degrees.
After an entire day in the sun, there was still plenty of ice left.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
Oh, our project? We are broadcasting a playlist on frequency 87.7FM for the Pleasant Grove based “Follow The Flag” events. Tomorrow, they will unfurl Big Betsy, the largest free flying American flag in the world.
You can see it from all over the valley. But, if you happen to be driving around Pleasant Grove’s East bench, tune your radio to 87.7 and feel a little of the patriotic spirit and realize the station is on ice.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Before we no longer had a van, I was working on getting it ready to sell. We were going to ask $10,000 or so for it. And just like when you sell a house, you paint the baseboards and finally fix that leaky toilet. I was working on fixing the minor little things on our van.
About two years ago my lovely wife was driving our van down the freeway at about 70 MPH when she got a flat tire. Well, not exactly a flat tire. Her right front tire exploded.
Back in the late 1990s, Ford motor company and Firestone tire company had a problem. The problem was that Firestone tires tended to seperate at high temperatures. The lawsuits said low temperature as well. It was no joking matter. Over 271 people died in rollover accidents that happened as a result of the tires failing at high speed.
So, back to my wife’s tire: she was driving a 15 passenger van and her tire exploded. Fortunately, there was only minor damage. A piece of trim and a hub cap.
The trim was going to be a couple hundred dollars to fix. It was a small enough piece that I decided it might not be worth fixing it. But, the hub cap? Sure, that would be an easy one. … .Right?
My first stop was a junkyard. The Silverados, Express Vans, and several other Chrevrolet trucks used the same type of hubcaps. I checked several junkyards. The problem was my van was too new. None of the junkyards I checked had anything newer than around 2001. The hubcaps are different on the older vans and trucks.
I finally decided to go to the dealership. Dealerships charge more than junkyards, of course. But, it would add more to the value of the car to have the baseboards painted. And honestly, how much could they charge for simple plastic hubcaps?
$144. . .each!
I didn’t buy a new hubcap at that time. . .or that price.
I continued to look for hubcaps at junkyards or on the side of the road. No luck.
And then the accident happened. And the insurance company totalled our van. And they gave us a check. A bigger check than we expected. It was a check for the entire van. What about that missing hub cap? Was the check $144 less than it might have been with the extra hubcap? Was the hubcap worth the money or not?
It was either worth the $144 or it wasn’t.
I guess I won’t ever know, but I do know that I’m glad I didn’t buy that hub cap a week before the van wrecked.
And I kind of wish I could have taken those other three hubcaps when I cleaned out the van at the body shop.
They’re worth $144. . .each!
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I have 13 children. People often ask me why we have 13?
Well, it’s all we could fit in the van.
But, we’ve had some move out. We have seats open!
We are down to 5 children at home. And we decided that it was time to downsize our vehicle. We recently bought a Yukon Denali. It seats 7. That’s nearly half what our 15 passenger van could hold. The Yukon gets better gas milage.
Vans are very popular in Utah: minivans, cargo vans, 15 passenger vans. It would not be hard to find a buyer for our van. I wanted it to be sold. But, I didn’t want to go through the process of selling it.
Our van was a 2014 Chevy Express 3500. The blue book was somewhere around $12000, depending on the condition of the van. Ours was in fair to good condition. We owned the van outright. We make it a habit to stay out of debt. We borrowed money to buy the Yukon with the idea that we’d pay it off when we sold the van.
Part of my hesitation was my neighbor. His family has been good friends to us since the day we moved in. He has helped me fix cars and stoves, computers and Christmas lights. His family owned a van, but it was older and tended to rattle the faster it went.
But, they weren’t in a position to buy our van. And I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to sell it. So, it sat in my driveway. And my lovely wife used it to run errands.
It sat there until last week. During a routine errand, my lovely wife ended up hitting the truck in front of her.
The collision was at a low speed, but the damage to our van was extensive. The truck that got hit rolled into the truck in front of it. The damage was greatest to our vehicle, to the first truck and only slightly more to the second truck.
Police and paramedics arrived and took statements and examined the victims. The other cars drove away. Their drivers armed with our insurance information. Our van was loaded on a tow truck and headed off to the insurance adjusters.
My daughter drove to pick up my lovely wife as I made my way home from Salt Lake City. That began several days of convalescence and phone calls with the insurance company.
Was the van repairable? Or would it be written off as a total loss?
I was torn by the thought. If it was repairable, I’d get a check from the insurance company and have a broken van. I’m not sure I’d want to fix it. On the other hand if it was totalled, they’d give me a larger check and I wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with a smashed up van.
Today we headed to the body shop. The decision was made. The van was totaled. The insurance company handed up a large check. In fact, larger than the most ambitous sale price we had considered.
So, at the end of the day, I’d “sold” our van for a very good price. But, it’s not a sales tactic I would suggest anyone consider, and not one we would have attempted given the choice.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
It was about 2005. I had returned to school at BYU studying Computer Science. I was a bit of an anomoly among my classmates. First I was older than most of the. I was forty years old. Most of my classmates were about half my age.
I was also a lot more experienced in the world of computers than they were. I had just finished nearly ten years at Microsoft. Microsoft was not a popular company at my school. In fact, I used to teach a TA session where I would ask people what companies they hated. Occasionally a guy from the country would offer Ford (or Chevy.) But, generally the most hated company was Microsoft.
Partly I think it was jealousy. Microsoft was the biggest and the baddest at that time. Google wasn’t around yet. Microsoft had actually infused $100M into Apple to keep it afloat as they developed the iPhone.
Party, it was the list of victims. Microsoft had systematically taken down everyone in the software business. The mere hint that Microsoft might develop a product was enough to dry up funding for a startup in the same arena. A tactic Microsoft critics called Vaporware. They had destroyed Novell, WordPerfect, Borland and dozens of other companies.
And Bill Gates was the face of Microsoft. Sure, there was a Paul Allen to play Wozniak to his Steve Jobs, but for the most part, Gates was Microsoft.
I’d be embarrassed to have as much money as Bill Gates.
It was a comment from a 22 year old ideologue. He had no idea of the billions that Gates had given away. He had no idea of the meager $250,000 salary without any stock options that Gates had taken as his salary.
All he knew was that Bill Gates was the richest man in the world and his company dominated the industry. . .and made buggy software.
Oh, Microsoft products weren’t really much worse than anyone elses. But, hackers attacked Microsoft. Often because they were the biggest. But, the year before I left Microsoft there had been a change. They spent an entire year focused on security. They stopped added new features and instead went back to shore up the existing products.
In 1995, Microsoft had “missed” the internet. The industry announced that Netscape was king of the mountain and had too much of a lead in the browser market for anyone to catch them.
Microsoft devoted the entire company to capturing the internet browser market. Within a couple of years, Netscape was no longer the king of the hill. Microsoft established a dominate position that they wouldn’t give up until Google came along years later.
So when Microsoft set out in 2004 to transform the company into a security company, the industry again announced they had missed their chance.
This was the environment as I talked to a class of Computer Science majors in 2005. I told the class that I was going to make two predictions.
First within 5 years Microsoft would be considered the industry leader in computer security.
Second, that within 10 years Bill Gates would be one of the most respected men in the world.
My predictions were met with skepticism to say the least. Of course, there was no way to prove my prediction. Not then.
But, in the ensuing 14 years, a couple of things have become clear. The question of security is open for debate. Microsoft certainly improved its security. And it has built many security features into Windows.
But, the second prediction is easier to check on. In 2014 Bill Gates was voted the most admired man in the world by a poll in The Times of London. In 2018 Bill Gates was again voted the world’s most admired man.
Bill Gates left Microsoft not long after I did. He is still the richest man in the world. It’s surprising considering that he’s given away over $50B through his foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The hatred for Gates wasn’t really rational. It was based on people’s emotional response to their perception of Microsoft. People’s love for Gates is also based on emotion. But, given the circumstances, he is probably more deserving of the praise than he was the criticism.
I don’t make predictions very often, but occasionally I get one right.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
It wasn’t my fault. And I’m not saying that to deflect blame. I really am trying to defelct the credit.
We did a good thing. Our client came to Salt Lake City. We’re doing a software upgrade. We were in Lexington last week doing a similar migration. Last week we ran into some issues.
This week there were a few, but fewer than last week. In fact, this week was a great success. Our agents begin taking calls at 5:30AM. We had to be there when they showed up for work. The tools migration affects their initial login.
I live in Pleasant Grove. It’s about 45 minutes South of Salt Lake City. That meant leaving home at 4:45. Which meant up around 4:00AM. Afternoons felt like late evening after 12 hour days. Fortunately, we completed the migration.
The thing about a big project like this is that there are lots of moving parts. There were desktop engineers, network engineers, Mission Control analysts. It’s like the credits we all sit through at the end of a Marvel movie as we wait for the end credits scene. There were people responsible for making badges and ordering lunch. There were hundreds of agents and dozens of supervisors. We even had script writers. Except ours were writing Powershell scripts and not movie scripts.
And everyone had to do their job correctly. In addition we all had to be flexible enough to react. For example, when the computers for the Online Assistance Team (OAT) got migrated on Wednesday instead of Thursday, we had to figure out how to get them migrated on the fly.
My title is Senior Program Manager. I’m the IT resource with our client. That means I move between the two companies. I help to call the shots on our side and tell the client team where to point the shots on their side. Everyone on the client side knows me and everyone on our side knows me.
If something goes wrong, I’m expected to do whatever it takes to make it go right. In Lexington that meant getting someone in North Carolina to write a script to push our updates. And then it meant going station to station with our desktop engineers to manually install the software when the script missed a step.
It also means that when things go correctly, I’m the one people look at. It’s reasonable to blame me when things go wrong, but unreasonable to give me the credit when things go right.
It’s like flying a kite. In order for a kite to fly, many things have to go right: wind, kite surface, string. If any one of them fails the kite falls. I’m the guy flying the kite. I’m expected to make sure we have the right kind of string, that we pick a windy day, that we have a well designed kite. If any of it is not right, I’m supposed to figure that out. But, I didn’t design the kite. I didn’t create the string. And I certainly didn’t cause the wind to blow.
If I didn’t plan well, that’s on me. For the kite to fly everyone had to do their parts correctly. That’s on them.
So, when I tell people that it really was the team that deserves the credit, I’m not just being modest. It’s the truth.
I can’t do this without a little help from my friends.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I started repairing my daughter’s car today. Well, I finished the disassembly, and the actual repair. Now it’s time to reassemble the car.
I started, but Schrodinger stopped me. And it wasn’t his cat this time.
In case you’re not familiar with Schrodinger and his amazing cat, he was an Austrian physicist. He came up with the idea that has been called “Schrodinger’s cat.” See, the cat and some poison are in a box. The poison will kill the cat at some undetermined point. But, the box is sealed. So, until the box is opened, there is no way to know if the cat is dead or not. So, the cat can be assumed to be both dead and alive. And as long as you don’t open the box, it stays that way, both alive and dead.
But, it wasn’t Schrodinger’s cat that stopped me from completing the assembly of my daughter’s car. I actually did manage to get the oil pan reassembled. And fortunatley, I got all the supports and various undercarraige bits on correctly.
Next is the frontend work. The condensor, the radiator and then, of course, the cowling.
But, you know, it was getting late. And I was tired. And I might need a part. . .or a tool. . .or maybe I just wanted to do it tomorrow. Or maybe it was really Schrodinger’s car.
See, if I don’t finish assembling it, I didn’t have to worry about whether I’d done the job correctly or not. I could assume I had, of course. But, I could also assume I hadn’t done it correct and needed to redo it.
It’s silly really. I’ve either done it correctly or I haven’t. Just as Schrodinger’s cat was either alive or dead regardless of whether we know it or not. My daughter’s car is either correct or not, regardless of whether I know it or not.
But, for at least one more day I think I’ll just leave the cat in the car for now.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Do you need any help?
A couple of weeks ago my daughter hit a tire. It damaged my other daughter’s car. (Things That Go Bump In The Night Driving.)
Today I finally started in on fixing it. There’s three stages to a repair:
1. Disassembly
2. Repair
3. Reassembly
Step #2 is actually the shortest of the three.
I’m well into Step #1. There are several pieces that need to be disassembled. First I had to remove the plastic cowling around the front bumper. That revealed a very damaged compressor. The compressor is used by the AC system. It’s like a mini-radiator that sits in front of your actual radiator. The condensor is pretty fragile. Like the radiator it has lots of fragile aluminum ridges that make up the entire condensor.
This one was bent nearly into a horseshoe shape.
It had pushed back into the radiator. Fortunately the radiator seemed to be good enough to keep. The frame that held it in place was pushed about 3″ out of line.
I had to remove the battery and radiator overflow container. I also noticed that the oil pan appeared to have taken the brunt of the errant tire. In fact it was missing two bolts that looked like they’d been knocked out.
In order to remove the oil pan, you have to remove the transmission support bracket and a couple of other brackets.
You also have to remove the exhaust from the catalytic converter. If you don’t want to remove both ends of the exhaust pipe, you need to support it after removing the front end.
Then, you have to drain the oil. (Might as well remove the oil filter as well.) And then remove 18 10mm bolts. Next gently pull the pan off the bottom of the engine.
You’re nearly done with Step #1 at this point. You have to remove the old gasket. Depending on how long it’s been on, the gasket may come off easily, or it might come off like I had to try to take this one off, by scraping it carefully inch by painful inch.
Anyway, that’s all there is to Step #1. Next, I’ll install the new gasket.
I’ll pound the frame back in place. I’ll reinstall the radiator and the new condensor I bought. I’ll fill fluids. I’ll replace the cowling. And hopefully there will be no leaks and I can return the car to my daughter.
And that was the problem. My neighbor wandered over to ask me about my progress today. He wanted to know if I needed any help.
Did I need any help?
Well, I might want some help. But need? No, I don’t need any help.
In the past my neighbor has helped on some of the more involved repairs. Last time we needed to fix this car’s frontend, he did the welding.
But, this time I knew how to do everything that was needed.
Somehow that didn’t make me feel better.
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) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
