Where is your flow chart?

In the early 80's in "introduction to structured programming" ('basic plus' was the operating language being learned.) the teacher disdained that I did not do "flowcharts"...or that when I did do them, I did so only because I had been compelled to turn one in, and it was inevitably produced AFTER I had written the program, and was a reflection of exactly what the program did...but based on empirical observation, not in creative forethought in the outlay of the design. Little did I know at that point in life the serious significance of this defect.


In high school wood-shop, same trouble...I was building the object when the teacher walked up wanting to see the plans. They are in my head, being created as I go. Not acceptable, but the teacher had many students and usually a distraction got me out of the tedious task of going back to the desk and creating a plan.

It was some three decades later in life before it hit me one day that my problem in life was exactly the same as in that computer class, or shop class. I'm not designing it then following the plan...I'm so busy figuring out the plan as I go...its easier just to tell what i did , when i get done. This, despite horrifically hard working sacrificial efforts, has not succeeded in a comfortable, secure, relaxing existence financially speaking. And while it has offered many enjoyed jobs and chores thru the years, it is now in later years when I am already wishing that I did not "have to" work so hard and at so near entry level of a position.

It is now that I'm trying to figure out what to do to get out of this rat race a bit and spend more time at home, and not as demanding of my energy. And I'm discovering...how that all along, and definitely at least now...a plan needs to exist, a "flow chart" that leads to it..a strategy and a work-list...or step by step....and moving towards it as surely as assembling an unassembled bookcase. I need to be so familiar with the flowchart along the journey that when I reach each desired goal, it is with the feeling of deja vu simply because I've had this in my mind all along the way (just like knowing what the bookcase is to look like).

Ahhh...If I live to be old, I'll have living figured out. Maybe.

Somedays there are subtle signs that should warn us to stay home

Understanding the look I give when you're talking to me

This is EXACTLY what it is like with impaired hearing. How words sound to me, and how my mind works to put it together to determine your message.

be patient thru the first part...

Things to Think About

Today, an Excellent day, as Grace Kelly...that "almost 6" year old and I toodled along in my old pickup for about a 35 mile ride to the house. There was alot of interesting stuff to see, cows eating the leaves of a tree, a baby horse, goats, road kill, another road kill, another, another.."why so many dead animals?" question, another...

Remember how summers felt when we were kids? I asked her what her plans were for summer when school was out soon...."every single day go swimming, go bowling, and come back to the house and keep on having fun, every single day". Wow...its that simple.

We painted more on the mural on her wall...adding the shoes to the 3 or 4 foot doll painting of Strawberry Shortcake we've been working on for probably a year now...in a "from time to time" like pace.

She even let me help her name her life-size doll that she interacts with in a motherly fashion so often. While her mind is young and still unexposed to some meanings and linked emotions...she approved of a sweetly spoken idea..."Moron". So at this moment, "Moron" has been put to bed for a nap.

We dipped the ends of match sticks in the liquid around a burning candle wick, twirl it slow, lift it out straight up (pointing down), with the wax forming a tear-drop shape at the bottom as we blew softly. Once cooled, a new layer was added, many times.

She didn't know what a burning insect smells like. Wow, that should be at least one school project of many in that first year of school. There was a big dead Lunar Moth in the grill of the car. Once straight pinned to a stick, and held to a flame...that experience was gained. The reaction was pretty emphatic...probably not going to be a smell she could "adapt to".

Another thing learned today... To tighten the chain on the chainsaw. Loosen the two bar holding nuts about a half a turn, then while holding upward pressure on the nose end of the bar, turn the adjustment screw (between the bar nuts). (it does have a limit though, so don't turn it past the point it goes to easily). The tension of the chain ideal when pulled up, barely daylight can be seen under just one of the bottom side "guide-rudder" (my name for it) of a link in the chain. then tighten the bar holding nuts (using the spark plug wrench size end of that cool T-wrench commonly used with chainsaws...).

The day isn't over.