It doesn’t matter…

when you have no control, no power, no effect on the outcome. You reach into the sublime or go nuts.

A great example is a storm. You can make plans or not but your wishes have no relevance to the storm except how you choose to deal with the result. You can do nothing and watch it come. You can tell others in your house “we should leave now” but there is no guarantee that they will listen. Actually, odds are most people will not act until it is too late.

The foolish escape as they are being lashed by the gale and think their plan to not act on warnings was sound. Some do nothing and blame others while ignoring the simple fact acting early with the information you have on the table would have made their life much easier.

…

I read in the NYT today about credit card debt:

“Eliminating negative feelings about indebtedness was the idea behind MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaign, the work of McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising, which came out in 1997.

One of the tricks in the credit card business is that people have an inherent guilt with spending,” Jonathan B. Cranin, executive vice president and deputy creative director at the agency, said when the commercials began. “What you want is to have people feel good about their purchases.”

What Mr. Cranin refers to as “inherent guilt” is actually the thread of personal responsibility which needs to be cut by the knife of delusion many choose after buying into the ad agency hype.

It is a choice folks make every day.

Priceless.

Mars out.

Welcome…

I must take time to welcome new readers. Apparently, there are two servers and several workstations (IP addresses) in central Texas where half a dozen or so people have found HOURS to scan my blog during the business day. You must be self-employed and I hope you are entertained…

Get back to work.

Mars out.

The scorpion and the fiddleback…

There are good reasons to wear boots while working on construction projects. The most obvious is preventing squashed toes. A couple of weekends ago I chose flip-flops with boot-cut Wranglers while hanging a couple of doors/trim and putting up crown mold in a recent purchase. The 1930 duplex is pier and beam with ship-lap under oak for most of the flooring. A few years back all of the walls were stripped to studs and many gaps remain at the base through the floor after replacing old gyp with sheetrock. In some spots, if the light is right, you can see the dirt beneath the subfloor in the crawl space, a perfect habitat for fiddlebacks, skunks and feral cats. I planned foaming/caulking the gaps before installing base. As I was nailing off some door trim I felt the bite above my ankle but really didn’t see the beast. I didn’t think about it until two days later when I dried myself after the shower - the wound was typical (I have been bitten before) with a blue-to-red-to-white-center-dot disk about the size of a silver dollar. After dressing the wound I wondered if the necrotic cavity (about the size of a lead pellet) would be permanent. Hooray! The news is good - the new scar is shiny and almost flat.

What does that have to do with an image of a scorpion? Well, I found Mr. Scorpion in the warehouse last Friday. I was doing something and saw movement eight inches from my hand - surprise! I knew I had been in the bayou too long when my first thought was “That’s a small crawfish.”

I dispatched the bug with a three pound cross peen shop hammer. After taking his picture…

Mars out.

“We have time”…

We are entering a period where the cumulative effect of processes, communication (lack of), choices by individuals, etc have reached a diminishing personal quality of life threshold I set after closing the last project. If folks get information and don’t act on it then they get whatever consequences occur as the result of their choice(s) - there’s no blame. What fascinates me is the simple fact the turnover date has never changed and from September, 2007 not one person has mentioned the philosophy of turning the project over early.

Mars out.

dimensional…

I’m enjoying the many Easter Eggs I find as each item is checked off the list of tasks I finish in the house. Take a look at the image. I really don’t care how smart you are, you may own a company, be licensed by the state to perform some task for lots of money, you might be a C.P.A. or a pilot, maybe you watched every episode of “This Old House” but until you have repaired the damage caused by the insidious penetration of water 50 times in numerous places in different homes you might not appreciate the manufacturers’ instructions for windows, siding and any product installed in a hole in your wall for what they are. It’s pointless to do things wrong when fighting water. You will be discovered by the universal solvent.

The fit and finish in the space I’m going to live in is a challenge simply because I want it a certain way - just like you. The $1 per foot floor covering looks like crap while the one I like is about $5 per foot. I think you know what will happen…I told the thrifty Scandinavian genes to sit in the backseat and keep quiet. I’ve observed some people practice self-deprivation. It’s a thin disguise for some level of self-loathing and becomes a compulsion.

While in the bayou I have read about the Acadian heritage. I follow rabbit trails and came upon a song by The Band - “Acadian Driftwood” - a great tale (not exactly history). The guitar chord voicings are just enough and Richard, Levon and Rick do it right.

Meanwhile, work in the bayou is following a known path.

Mars out.