To The Dump, Gently
Hey there trash-pickers!
Is it sad for me to get excited about spending five bills on a new clutch for the poor Dodge Dakota (more on that in a bit) so that I could drive it to the mountains and finally take out the trash? Four weeks of trash? Is it that pathetic? I mean, the thing does get fairly good gas mileage and can even haul things that aren’t trash. Why get excited about something as pedestrian as going to the dump?
Because I finally can.
It’s a psychological victory in the battle to get things done at the cabin after all and I’ll take whatever victories I can get—even if they are startlingly expensive. The last time I replaced a clutch it was on a ’79 Datsun 210 and the parts cost something on the order of a hundred bucks. It took an afternoon and we were done. Sure, we had our own operating theatre as well as time and the strong urgings from the cheapskate gene, but jumpin’ Jeebus! Two-fifty for parts? Outrageous! The rest was labor, of course, but it’s not like the shop I went to had a lot of overhead (hardly any overhead at all what with all the rainwater INSIDE that office of theirs. – ed Overhead… leaky roof… Oh! I get it! You’re a really funny guy, chief! Keep it up! – Bob).
If I had the time and shop space I would have done the job myself, which points to something insidious. I don’t have enough time because I’m working long hours to make the money to pay for services that I could’ve done myself if I’d had the time. I’m sure each and every one of you faces that same dilemma. Surgery and drywall are best not left to do-it-yourselfers if you want them done right, but I figure that everything else is fair game. If I only had the time.
Speaking of time, I spent a certain amount of it having a lovely one at a coworker’s home on Friday attending a dinner party with clinic staff people. The dinner was fabulous, the company was delightful, and I received a “wizard wand” for my work on the peecees there. That and some mention of how I don’t make people feel stupid.
If you’ve camped out here long enough, you already know how much I despise I.T. people who treat the people who use the machinery in their charge as, well, “users.” Who treat their coworkers (and often the people who pay their salaries) as ignorant sheep who simply aren’t to be trusted with the gift of technology graciously bestowed upon them by a benevolent master race of intellectually superior uber-geeks. It’s nonsense and I can’t wait for the day when people finally realize that using a computer isn’t that hard after all. That they don’t need to be intimidated, and that there really isn’t a secret formula.
Okay, there is a secret. The tech guys are winging it just like you. They don’t know anything more about that specialized custom bit of software than you do. Don’t believe me? The next time you have a problem and call them over, watch what they do. Watch as they click on every menu to see if something looks familiar. Marvel at how they engage you in small talk while they wade through endless options, just like you did before you called them. Thrill to the sounds of “hmmm” and “well, well…”
Just you watch. You’ll see.
More in a bit…
– bob