the tractor ordeal

retaining wall
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

This tractor caused us way too much trouble. It all started so quietly on a Friday evening while the neighbors ate their dinner.

The weekend project was to knock down the old retaining wall, clear some dirt, and begin the process of building it up again. But we'd have to earn our stripes before we got to that.

The plan was to off-load the tractor the night before. Jim arrived at 7:00pm.

When he arrived he first backed his rig up the 30 degree driveway incline, put it in park, and climbed into the tractor on the trailer, started it up and idled a bit.

When we drove the tractor off the trailer at the top of the driveway it upended the front of the trailer. Of course it was attached to the hitch on the truck. The hitch rose high in the air thus lifting the back wheels of the truck clean off the cement. This left only the front wheels on the pavement, which were not blocked. So they began to roll forward down the 30 degree incline.

Oooopppppppsssss.

Since the truck lost it's traction it began a long slide down the driveway with trailer in tow and Jim still in the tractor, which was idling on the back of the trailer.

It seemed forever and in slow motion as the whole rig slid down the hill. I thought about jumping into the cab but since the rear wheels were off the pavement, I wasn't convinced it would do any good. Besides, I had this image that when it reached the bottom of the drive, it would keel over onto it's side crushing the prickly bush and mailbox with me inside. It didn't seem like a wise move to me. So I watched motionless as Jim receded down the drive in the small cab of the tractor, on the trailer towed by the truck.

When the truck reached the bottom of the drive, it jackknifed, which wedged the trailer hitch on the ball and the tongue of the trailer under the bumper. The front edge of the trailer pined itself into the left rear tire. Jim was half standing, as if to jump, but it was too late for that so he sat back down to assess the damage.

We were in a jam because as the trailer scraped down the driveway, the tread ramps flipped up and locked the tractor onto the back end of the trailer. It couldn't go forward and it couldn't go backward. If we drove it backward it would most likely bend the axle of the truck since part of the trailer was sitting on the top edge of the wheel. Remember, this tractor weighs almost two tons.

The result of all of this was that the bumper was bent upward, which prevented the back door from opening. (It's a fully enclosed Tahoe truck) It also dented the left rear quarter panel and dinged the rear wheel rim.

What are we going to do now? This wan NOT a good beginning.

We fist let the air out of the left rear tire.

Next we removed the pins holding the ramps to the trailer.

Then we drove the tractor off the trailer, hooked the chain to the rear of the trailer and pulled the trailer off the wheel and partially back up the drive.

Finally we re-filled the tire with air, and drove the truck over the lawn into the street. (Jim later straightened the bumper using a tree and come-along.)

I didn't get much sketching done today.

...dave
If I can't be a good example I'll just be a horrible warning.

Whoa, 14,161 steps!

seven miles in a day
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

Love my step counter. The other day I was in The Home Depot a good part of my day gathering stuff for various projects. I tracked 14,161 steps -- that's 7 miles!

That place is huge. It's almost two football fields or about 100,000 square feet. Walking back and forth meant all this exercise. I need to visit that place more often. In the hot summer and in the cold winter it's a great place to do walking exercise. (I wonder if other people do this too? You know, find a huge building and walk it's length just for exercise. Sure is hard NOT to buy stuff though.)

...dave
Hey, the way I figure it is this: if the kids are still alive by the time my husband comes home, I've done my job.
- Roseanne Arnold

a carpenter's pencil holder

a carpenter's pencil
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

I really like well designed things. (Maybe I've mentioned this before?)

No, but seriously, it's a beautiful thing when I discover some clever item that is so well thought out I wonder what I did before it's invention. That's the mark of a great design.

When I find this kind of stuff I think to myself: "Why didn't I think of that?"

So here we have a carpenter's pencil holder.

The pencil itself is fairly well designed. Unlike a regular #2 pencil, it's flat so it doesn't roll off the roof if you drop it. And it's easy to sharpen, just flip it on either of it's sides and slice a sliver of wood from it's side to reveal a fresh, sharp tip.

But when the pencil has been sharpened to a stub it's hard to find in a tool belt. And because of it's flat shape, you can't just stick it behind your ear.

So this hollow aluminum shell with clip makes a good design. It never disappears in the pouch and it's always the same length. As the pencil wears down, you just push it deeper into the holder.

I love stuff like this.

Since I'm only a weekend carpenter I have no way of knowing if real carpenter's use this stuff or find it helpful.

But who cares what they think?

...dave
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

Designers waste my time

time wasting
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

I'm frequently amazed at modern designers who have total disregard for my time. They absolutely have no concern. I can tell by the manuals that come with the incomprehensible devices they create.

These modern electronic devices have shrunk in size while the manuals for the tiny things have the heft of a New York City phone book. Worse, they expect me to read them.

Camera phones

I tried to turn off my Blackberry's camera sound, which is absolutely annoying. I don't understand why the designers of these digital devices insist they need to make the noises their mechanical grandfathers made. It's absolutely ridiculous. I spent 30 minutes searching through the menus and then another 30 minutes in Google.

However, I should't have bothered trying to discover how to shut the sound off as . . . there is no way to do it!

Are you kidding me? What if I mute the phone? No? Not!

So what designer thought of this clever feature? Who designs this stuff? Kids? What a total waste of time.

A chair

I went to OfficeMax to buy a chair. I sat in several leather chairs checking for comfort, tilt, and swivel. I found the best in the bunch. It was on sale. It had a piston mechanism that allowed for height adjustment. The only thing it didn't have was tilt. All the other chairs had it. I couldn't imagine this one didn't.

I tried the knob under the chair but that didn't do it. I tried forcing myself back in the chair, thinking that if I just pushed hard enough it would disengage the stiff back and let me rock backward, but it didn't. I was frustrated and started to leave. I didn't care how much of a discount there was, if it didn't tilt back I wasn't interested.

But then I thought about my thin wallet of little cash. I needed a chair for the office. I needed this chair. So I flopped back into its buttery soft leather pillow seat and inhaled the wonderful fragrance of the chocolate colored tanning finish. I've got to get this wonderful piece of furniture.

My hand dangled downward in complete surrender and hit the lever I'd been playing with and suddenly the chair rocked backward.

What did I do? How did that happen? I sat forward, leaned over and jiggled the lever again to see if it was just an accident. Suddenly the chair back stiffened again.

What on earth? What's happening?

After 30 minutes I discovered what I was missing. I had to pull the lever outward to release the back. Ohhhhh...you pull the lever outward. I get it. Clever design that.

Who would have ever figured that out? I only did by accident.

This is what drives me crazy. A simple embossed arrow on the plastic handle could have given me a clue.

But the designers either didn't think of it or were too busy to bother. I can hear them in the R & D lab:

"How can we make the seat rock backward without adding another lever and mechanism?"

"Let's just make this up/down lever double as the back release."

"Hey, what a great idea. Think of the money we'll save. Less hardware, more markup."

"How do we give the user a clue as to how this will work."

"Ah, let them figure it out."

Designers waste my time.

...dave
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who don't have it. - George Bernard Shaw

I learned this from that

sketch a dog
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

I have a friend that likes to tell me stories. They are sometimes long stories but they are interesting nonetheless.

He told me the story of his long stay in a hospital. Next to him was a biker laid up from an motorcycle accident. His friends would come to visit him dressed in leather jackets, tattoos, and body piercings. My friend, Kevin, is a friendly guy and so he soon struck up a conversation with the biker and eventually they got to know each other very well.

Eventually the guy really took a liking to him and told him one day that he'd like to give him a gift. He said that he'd like to give Kevin a house. He'd inherited it from his father but didn't like it much. He wanted to do more traveling. So he sold Kevin his house for about half of what is was worth at the time. (Really a gift considering the California housing prices at the time.)

Kevin told me: "I learned this from that: Never judge a person on face value and always show genuine personal interest in other people."

I failed at that. I had a friend that actually worked on my team for about a year. He later went off to another team and we'd see each other occasionally. I'd make it a point to go see him and ask about his family etc.

One day during our quick catch-up talk he said: "You seem like a pretty happy guy Dave."

"Yeah, I am. Love my family, my job, my friends. You seem like you have a good sense of humor too Ted, like that story you told me about mowing your lawn."

"Yeah, I guess, but I do get a little down sometimes. Maybe we can get together and talk?"

"Absolutely, anytime Ted. We could do some lunch this week if you'd like."

"Yeah, I'll call you."

But Ted never did. And I never followed up.

And now he's gone. He took his life just a few weeks ago.

I go over and over his words to me: "I get a little down sometimes." How I wish I could rewind the tape, push the replay on the remote of life, and redo my response. But he's gone now and so is the opportunity.

The sadist thing for me is that I didn't even tune in. I was totally clueless of how deep his depression had become. How could I be so ignorant?

I learned this from that: Live in the now. Tune in. Realize when a friend needs your help. Reach out to them. Don't let the daily noise of life distract you from tuning in to your friend's voice.

...dave
Mistakes are often the stepping stones to utter failure.