What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger

The title is in reference to our recent experience with replacing our '96 vintage (and very, very loud) oven hood vent.  After a few weeks of research, I ordered a Broan model on Amazon. On paper, this was a very simple installation.  3 wires to connect & 4 screws to secure the hood. Very simple. Well, the tough part was that these 7 things needed to be done at basically the same time while holding the hood in position.  Definitely, a 2 person job but probably shouldn't have taken a full weekend.   Quite the adventure, but in the end successful and it is extremely quiet.  One small issue is that Debbie has since decided she doesn't like the looks of it, so we may have a slightly used one to pass on to someone.

The same weekend we went to the Maroon 5 concert at Riverbend. Last time we were at this venue we had great seats, but had to stand the entire concert. This time we got lawn tickets thinking we could sit. Wrong. The place was packed and standing was necessary in order to see the big screen. Concert was fun and quite the eclectic crowd. Kelly Clarkson opened and she was very good. Couldn't help but notice that all the women in the crowd know all the lyrics and seemed to sing em with vengeance often looking the dates in the eye like they were evil slugs.

I may be turning into a coffee snob. No matter what brand I choose, the Keurig just doesn't do it for me these days. Still starting off with a cup for kick start, but have found myself a Starbucks a few times on the way to work. Nothing fancy, just a grande black (that's medium).  Very interesting to observe the customers. A bit different than those at Speedway. Not than one's better than the other. Just different, that's all.

Planted some kale & spinach seeds last week. Kale is already sprouting. Spinach is supposed to take a few weeks.  Going to put in some blackberry bushes next spring. Only fruit that's too expensive for me to buy.

Here's a video of a Feb 1989 hike with the kids when we lived in Forest Park. Note the back pack with dinosaur in tow. As the boys approach a ravine, LeAnn is the only one that has sense to point out that this might not be a good idea.  Finally, you'll see that snack time provided a welcome break. Not exactly the healthiest option, but always a family favorite.

Till next time.

Back by Popular Demand !

My apologies to the couple of months since my last post. Thanks G for the nudge. Been a busy summer, or maybe I'm just a procrastinator.

It's been a great summer for the lawn. Heading into August and still haven't had to drag out the sprinkler. Lots of rain and cooler temp. Gotta love it.

Want to give a shout out to the daughter-in-laws. Audrey (with the kindness of her dad) supplied me with a nice assortment of high end Foot-Joy socks. Never knew what I was missing. Think I'm set for life. Not to be outdone, Emily must have gotten tired of me whining about our antique blender and surprised us with a Magic Bullet recently. Way to go girls. But Barrett was ahead of you both months ago with a nice box of Cubans & he wasn't even in the family then. Thanks to all of you. My children chose wisely.

Here's one from the archives, My granddad, Shannon Keith Darland, with Justin, Eric & Ben September 1983.

Work has been great. Went to New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago to meet with people from a couple of plants in NH and the Boston area. It's really nice in that part of the country. Some of you may recall my rants last year this about this time about some of our business processes. Well, here we are a year later and guess what? Yep, I was right.  Good news is this year the process is being handled much better. So I'm thinking some of my comments must have stuck. Too bad it took a year, but I'm satisfied.

Mom & I went to homearama yesterday. She's now turning her attention to finishing the master bath. There was a lot of interesting things. Very few bath tubs in lieu of nice showers, no white cabinets & TV's everywhere. We had been thinking about putting one in the bath area for a long time and will probably do it. One of them even had a basketball (half court) in the basement.  

Watched an interesting documentary on Netflix a few weeks back. Called Hungry for Change & it pretty much blamed all the ills of the world on process foods. I think it made lots of sense. They were all about getting back to the basics. Talked about chia seeds, one of Gina's things some time ago. I've been having em in yogurt lately. Does a nice job if you know what I mean.

Mom & I are celebrating LeAnn's birthday (Aug 4th) with a Maroon 5 (& Kelly Clarkson) concert at Riverbend. Should be a good time

Well, it's getting past my bedtime & I still can't get the video to upload. So if you want to see it, you'll have to go to my you tube. (Even then, you'll need to let it buffer for awhile even though it's only 2 minutes 

Have a good week.

  

  

Darland 5+ LLC

Last time I was visiting Ben 'n Em, we're sitting at kitchen table and out of the blue Brynn looks at me and says, "granddad, you like fruit and ice cream." The girl nailed it.

Still struggling a bit with the DVD to iMovie technology. Transferring the DVD to Mac takes a few hours and then from Mac to iMovie a similar amount that wouldn't be so bad, but I uploaded the first DVD...twice.  Emily gave me a tip on how to embed the video into the blog. Did it the first time, but missed a step somewhere along the way this time. She even worked today to load it herself. Still doesn't seem to work, but we'll find out...

A follow up from last week...Thanks to those that provided feedback. And I want to welcome Eric as my first official subscriber. I encourage others to follow suit. That way everyone gets the benefit of your insights.  "Reply to all" is so old school.  A mixed bag on the towel conservation program. There's extremes at both ends of the spectrum. I'm just trying to pull some of you a little more back to center. Holli...700 towels, really?  Not unexpected, Mom promptly spent time recently sandblasting my bath. It really wasn't that bad.

Last week in Raleigh was a pleasant surprise. The facility is a GE showcase for self directed work teams. The workers are all certified mechanics, most have spent time working at various airlines. They give each other annual appraisals, not unlike LeAnn did at the academy. Lots of emphasis on working together. Downside was they were reluctant to challenge very much.  As a wise person once told me, without constructive conflict, potential solutions never get on the table. Well, I put a few on the table and I believe they appreciated it. Sometimes its necessary to state the obvious. At first, I thought there's no way I'd make it in this kind of enviroment. But after thinking about it, my bigger issue is that it's not clear who is my team. Many of my issues arise from defending those who I believe are my team. How's that for rationalizing?

The Raleigh area is nice, lots of trees as opposed to the sandy scrub you see closer to the coast. Lots of growth with all kinds of "Deerfield like" outdoor malls, except bigger and more crowded.  It was a long week. Didn't get back til midnight Friday.

Life is good. As much as I must have enjoyed the early years, I gotta say it doesn't get any better than this. I've been fortunate and am having fun watching everyone moving forward. It's nice to be the wise man around work. It takes some people longer than others, but eventually they all come around. Besides, after reviewing some of these videos, it's clear that I'm a better looking old guy than I was in my 20's.

Some keys to happiness in the workplace...be an expert at something that's meaningful and challenging. Think like a paid consultant. Do projects. (see Tom Peters - Circle of Innovation) Set high expectations. And my take, avoid having people reporting to you if at all possible. Being the expert with high expectations doesn't mix well with managing people, most of whom don't have your standards. Doesn't do you or them much good.

With that said, there are a few things I try to keep in mind when dealing with my clients / co-workers

1. Don't Interrupt (includes rolling eyes & other exaggerated facial expressions such as clearly showing your biting your tongue)
2. Avoid need to get in the last word
3. Use your inside voice

So here's a short clip. Chris & Ben are playing and generally acting like boys. LeAnn's trying to avoid getting steamrolled. Later, she's playing with a soccer ball & Chris is there to help. It doesn't seem to play, but here's a try.

So about the Darland 5+ LLC.  You all know I'm not a fan of taking on debt. But I understand there is always a time and place where it's appropriate, if not necessary.  So if you're going to do it, I would like in on the action instead of the banks. We're not talking a home mortgage here. First thought is in the car leasing business, if you're so inclined. Wouldn't you really like to be sitting in a new ride every 3-4 years? Go find your best deal at your local dealer and Darland 5+ will beat it significantly. Basically, I'll rely on the the dealers due diligence and I'll beat it with my low overhead. This isn't a hand out. Just tryin to keep that extra money in the family...from your pocket to ours.  This is no handout. And don't think I won't drag you down to the court house.  

Kid's corner (Brynn)

Why did the cookie go to the doctor?

Because he felt crummy!

Adult's corner

Recall the big homecoming Debbie had promised. Exceeded expectations!  

That's it for now

The Green Edition - Milkey Spores, nematodes & his 'n her's bathrooms

Happy Mother's Day 

You'll be happy to know that I learned how to transfer home videos to iMovie. Still need to get up to speed on adding text. Before we get to today's flash from the past, "green" may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a grizzled old conservative. Just goes to show I never stop learning.

Based on a tip from Ben some time back, this weekend I tried a organic approach to combat those nasty grubs that eat the roots of your lawn and garden...and grow up to be annoying Japanese beetles.

Milkey Spore aka Paenibacillus popilliae (formerly Bacillus popilliae) is a soil-dwelling, Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium.   Resident spores in the soil are swallowed by grubs during their normal pattern of feeding on roots. This ingestion of the spore by the host activates reproduction of the bacteria inside the grub. Within 7–21 days the grub will eventually die and as the grub decomposes, billions of new spores are released into the soil.Milky Spore in the soil is not harmful to beneficial insects, birds, bees, pets or man; and Milky Spore, like other bacteria, is highly survivable in cold and drought conditions.

Beneficial Nematodes are live microscopic organisms (non-segmented round worms) that occur naturally in soil throughout the world. They are parasitic to insect pests that typically have a developing (larval or pupal) stage of life in the soil; Upon finding a pest, they enter it through various body openings or directly through the body wall. Once inside, the nematode releases a toxic bacterium which kills the host larva within 24 - 48 hours. Both sound kind of creepy, but it's survival of the fittest out there. And it's environmentally friendly

Also on the green topic is his and her baths, something I discovered by accident. During our Master Bath makeover, Mom & I moved to the other upstairs bath. The makeover has been complete for awhile. Well, almost complete. Still have to do mirrors and sinks. Anyway, I usually get up a little earlier than Mom so I got used to listening to radio while getting ready without disturbing Mom. After a month or so, I realized the small stack of wash clothes and towels were lasting an amazingly long time. Do you realize how many often women have a need to wash this stuff?  Reality is that if you do a decent job while showering, you should never need to wash a bath towel. Wash cloths may be a little different, but it;s not like I'm sucking the water out of them. But they do get a little stiff after awhile, so I do change these out when the mood strikes. But most of you don't use wash cloths anyway. I don't think I'll get many converts among the women in the crowd, but you men know what I'm talking about.

Headed to Raleigh NC all next week. That's where our engines are assembled and they are having a week long event to see if the processes can be streamlined. I'd prefer to stay home, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Good news is Debbie is already planning a big welcome back for next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. 

About this week's video
Ben made a book of sea creatures and wanted to capture it on video. Ben is behind the camera and Chris is turning the pages & reading the book. LeAnn's wanders by. Appears she's been eating chocolate. You'll note that Ben is quite the perfectionist. "It's not a whale, it's a Blue whale". Pretty obvious that gene got passed on to Brynn.  Chris gets the message and proceeds to include color in the remaining descriptions, but got the 2nd color wrong.  

We transition to Chris behind the camera and Ben reviewing a dinosaur book from Aunt Charlene. Pretty animated performance. You may notice that I struggled with words greater the 2 syllables. Glad to know that its not something just kicking in as I get older.

You may also note the cool carpet.  No, we didn't buy it. It came with the house. We lived with it for several years before replacing it. Had 3 growing kids to feed. They didn't seem to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD5ywBSMuuo

Enjoy your week.
    

Got a lot of opinions, unsolicited advice, family history and general musings that need to be shared. Finally getting started. Not too sure about the technology involved. It's been quite a challenge getting to this point.  Just finished getting all the family videos transferred to DVD. Need to figure out how to get bits & pieces transferred to to a format to get them to on the blog. For now I uploaded LeAnn's 2nd birthday which Ben did for us a few years ago. Apologize if the size is too large. Probably will need some hands on training before you see anymore. Debbie & I have been screening them and there's lot of fun stuff. Stay tuned.

Life is good. So proud of all of my children, and their ability to choose great spouses.




Granddad's Blog