Grampa and me and TV makes three.

There’s a couple of things I really enjoy about writing a blog. 

It’s not that I have a thousand people hanging on my every word.  Hopefully the world has more sense than that by now. 

It’s not that I have great insight.  I’m fumbling through life just like most people out there.  I’m good at a few things, great at being a Dad and a smart ass come to mind (I think the two may be related) and I pretty much fake everything else as I go. 

Okay, I have some aptitude with electronic stuff.  Yeah, I can make Cat-5 cable, and I can change my own oil (note to self:  Call Nissan to book an appointment to get your oil changed) and given time, energy and a little bit of research I’m a pretty capable guy.  I prefer the term “Renaissance Man” although “Jack of All Trades, Master of None” tends to equally apply. 

What I like most about writing a blog is that I can put down my thoughts and my interests and set out a milestone of where I’m at.  I’m free to ramble to myself and build to the point I’m making.  Hopefully a couple people will gain some understanding of what goes through my mind.  I hope that both my Lady-love and eventually my children can read through this and think to themselves, “So that’s why I’m slightly unnerved any time I go out in public with him.“  Perhaps someday they might even say, “Oooh, that helps to explain his dementia.“  Or maybe, “He’s only half the moron I give him credit for.“  And finally, “He sure has bad grammar, hanging those prepositions and beginning sentences with a conjunction.”

I also have entire blind spots.  My Lady-love continues to foolishly as my request on things like how to rearrange the furniture and whether I prefer the cobolt blue shirt or the royal blue shirt, and just what was I thinking wearing them with the swamp green pants instead of the olive green pants?  I mean, really, I thought they were ecru!

I’m pragmatic to a fault.  So long as the walls stand, I don’t care what colour they are.  If she has a preference, that’s terrific!  I’ll fully support her decisions.  Asking me for my opinion is like asking her if she prefers conventional 5W30 over a synthetic 5W40.  I’m sure she’ll back me up by asking me just what I meant.

Design just isn’t my strong suit.

I’m pretty clear on where I stand.

If there’s anything that drives me up the wall it’s the design shows on TV.  They don’t hold my interest, I don’t believe the before and after pictures and half the time I think I’ve come up with dumber ideas that are twice as good because they’re practical.  Actually, I pretty much hate all TV shows that are on now.  I’ve got a thousand things better to spend my time on in the evenings.

Naturally, I’ve picked up a new show - the first new show I’ve started watching in almost 5 years.  I’ve become a huge fan of Holmes on Homes.  Yeah, I know the claw from the head from the handle on a hammer.  Most of the time I even use it properly.

I like it, not because I learn something new - usually I either know what he’s up to or I’m completely off in left field without knowing what is going on.  It’s Mike and his “Make it right!” attitude.  That’s where my Grampa fits in.  He would always say, “Quality pays for itself.“  I can hear it in his own voice.

There’s a story where Grampa had plasterers come in to do the walls in his home.  He supposedly told them he never wanted to see a crack in the plaster for as long as he lived.  One of the last things I ever did in his home after he passed on was walk from room to room looking at the walls.  I never saw a crack in a single wall through the entire house.  That’s good building right there.  From the original crotchety old fart himself.  I like to imagine him looking over the craftsmen with a wary eye making sure everything was up to his standard.

You see, I’m never going to become an exceptional renovator.  I’m never, ever going to make a living by tearing a house apart, fixing it and selling it on the marketplace for a profit.  I may do some small jobs, but that’s simply to make things more comfortable, better built and more practical in my home and environment.  I know when a project is too big for me to tackle on my own.

I’ve done little projects with my buddy Cam.  Well, some of them were big projects to me, but manageable for him.  When he does a job, he showed me the details in the background that made it a professional job versus a slap-together job.  I think if Mike Holmes ever pulled apart the work, he’d only criticize the parts of the project I did.

Mike’s attitude is a bit infectious - and that’s a great thing for me and my mindset.  I want to produce quality work and only quality work.  Once again, Grampa’s words resonate, “Quality pays for itself.“  If I’m doing a stored procedure, I don’t care if it’s the most elegant solution ever created, I care that it’s the best stored procedure I’ve done so far

I’m okay with SQL and I genuinely love the language, but I know I have much to learn.  I may never be an expert renovator, but I want to do things right - at least as right as I am capable of doing.  Next time I’ll know more and do better.  I may not knock out the perfect bash script run by a cron job, but there once was a time I hardly knew what bash and cron were.

So I scan through what I’ve got here and it’s a scattering of points and thoughts that make no sense and don’t come to a point.  I better emphasize it in bold so people know what I’m trying to say.

**1.  “Quality pays for itself.“  Grampa’s words hold true and I love to repeat them.
2.  Here’s a plug for Holmes on Homes.  He makes stuff right when people didn’t know enough or didn’t care enough to create with quality.
3.  I love writing in a blog.  Somedays I feel like an idiot putting my thoughts down, but I do the best I can and I think I’m improving.
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