Close Call

Well, I hadn't really told any of you about this. As a woodworker, I'm a little embarrassed. Back on May 10, I had a close call in the shop. It resulted in nine stitches in a finger, but it could have been a lot worse. Which is why I am calling it a "close call." I do have a finger that looks slightly different than it did before anything happened, but it is still in place and it still functions the way it is suppose to. With a nod to my Industrial Arts teachers, Russ and Bill, I will also tell you I wasn't doing anything identifiable as "WRONG." it was just one of those weird things that happens.

The idea of a "close call" seems to have a really different meaning at the moment, one we have all gotten somewhat used to and one I believe we will get more used to. I'm talking about those who are all around this disease we are all contending with. I've had about three of these so far. This is when someone you know and have been around either comes down with the disease, or is close enough to someone else that they need to be tested. With the move from summer to winter months, I fear these encounters won't decrease in number.

So, what do we do about this? I'll tell you what my behavior is going to be. In the time I have been in distribution/logistics, each time we had a close call, we took the time to look at the situation and decide what could have been done differently. Trust me, I've certainly done that with the situation in my shop. I stopped, and thought about what I could have done differently and what I can do going forward to make sure it doesn't happen again. I just don't like the pain and recovery period associated with any type of injury.

When we think about the corona virus, we have to take it very seriously. Not only is it taking lives, but in talking to friends, family, and co-workers who dealt with the disease personally, there seems to be the possibilities of true lasting consequences. This is really something to be avoided, so take the precautions you see necessary and I would encourage you to analyze any close calls you have, to make sure you can avoid the situation the next time. Hurt fingers heal and get better over time; sometimes lung function does not.

Enough of that. One other thing I wanted to talk about today is logistics around the holidays. I am sure most of you have seen this, but the major freight carriers are predicting an inability to stay caught up with packages over the next two months. The suggestion... ship early! This is one of those things I say to you today, but I'm really saying it out loud so I remind myself. Many of you know, particularly if you are family or a friend, I am horrible at planning ahead. Many times I have finished Christmas shopping on the 23rd or 24th of December. That looks like a bad plan this year, so I will need to plan differently.

I think I had let you know I found someone to take my sister's teardrop trailer to her. While this is true, we are struggling a little bit to get it done. Derek, who agreed to do the hauling, was first hit with a truck going down, then he was hit with COVID in his warehouse and had to shut down for a time. I hope we will see forward movement soon as I would like to get the trailer to my sister. I also have a couple of projects I've committed to this winter and need the space. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Finally, I would like to say think you to those who have found my Etsy store and placed orders. It is nice to know some of the things I make will be in your lives. If there is something you need and you believe it is in my skill set, do not hesitate to reach out. There may well be a possibility there.

Please continue to be careful and safe. I want everyone to be okay when we finally round the corner and find a way to deal with this terrible disease.

Resilience

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how brittle people are right now. I still believe this, but I also think it is important to talk about the flip side as often as we can. To me, the reverse of brittle is resilience. And resilience is what we need in the toughest of times. I may have told the story before, but it bears repeating. 

In the last days at Payless Cashways, we had a tendency to close ranks and work to take care of each other. We knew where we were going, we just didn't know how we were going to get there. In that environment, we were all pretty open about feelings and personal history. One friend talked about a period in his life when he and his family had to live in the haymow on a family farm. It would be very easy to think about how horrible living in a hay mow for any period of time could be. On the contrary, my friend told me how great the experience was. The family had each other, had a place to live and a whole big farm to play on. Sometimes it is just about looking at things the right way.

When I was working to finish college, one summer I had nothing, including a place to live. I ended up living in what would now be called a walk-in closet. There was enough room for a mattress and some space for personal items on the floor. Of course, there was plenty of room to hang things :). I went into the summer thinking I could survive anything, and this was just the next step in the journey. I came out of the summer having had the best time ever. The rest of the people living in the house weren't really people I knew well in the beginning, but we grew to know and appreciate each other. When I moved back to a more traditional living environment, I missed the craziness we had all enjoyed during the summer.

I know I repeat myself, but much of what we are going through right now is best handled with a good positive attitude. If you think about dealing with 2020 and all it has brought, those handling it the best know it will be a good story in a decade or so. Think about the number of stories that will begin with, Remember 2020? This will be our equivalent of those stories we heard when we were kids. You know the ones. About how our grandparents walking four miles to school, through deep snow, uphill both ways. Stories get bigger over time, and although it is hard to imagine, the stories about this year will get bigger as well. Okay, that is all I have to say about 2020 right now.

And now we wait. The teardrop trailer is complete, the transporter has been contacted and accepted the contract to haul it. The little final things are finished, and now we wait. 

I find the experience of completing a large, long-term project to be an interesting one. One I haven't necessarily experienced too often. The feeling that occurs when you are done with something which has taken time and work to complete. As I sit and think about it, it seems a little like finishing a college degree. There is the huge relief of a thing done, and hopefully done well, and at the same time you wonder what will change and how things will be different. Having this project going on in the shop over the last four years has always given me something to think about and something to talk to others about. I actually bought the trailer kit at the beginning of September 2016. This has actually been the length of an average undergraduate degree.

Where to next? When I started on the trailer I actually thought the next thing I would do in the Toybox was to rebuild a small tractor. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I  lost the desire to do mechanical work. I missed the window to learn it from someone I grew up around. I can watch enough on YouTube.

It has been interesting how the world has continued to fill up with woodworking projects for me to complete. There have been several library projects at this point, as well as work for people I know in the community. I have a project scheduled for this winter that will keep me busy for a while, and although I have joked about it, the time has come to get serious about finishing the kitchen cabinets for the house. That project has been on the back burner long enough. Time to get busy on it.

If you have any needs the Toybox might be able to help with, reach out and let me know. Have a great weekend.

Value

Last week, I had a couple of different discussions about the stuff we surround ourselves with to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Colored by what 2020 has been and continues to be, the conversations really made me think. One person is finishing a house right now and asked if I had advice for preparing for the move. Now, this made me think back. My family and I have made five major moves over the years. This may not really seem big, except we did all of them in a span of less than ten years. We got really good at moving. Anyway, when asked about moving, I said without question the most important thing to do is to sort and get rid of the items you won't need. Don't move items you really won't need. If you move it, that item will stay in your house for time, possibly years, to come. Now, with this simple advice comes some really big caveats.

First, if working with someone else to determine what should and should not be re-purposed, you will find "value" is incredibly subjective. Some items you couldn't even imagine being without are items the other person would throw in a garbage bag and carry to the curb. The same is true the other direction. I can tend to be somewhat overbearing in decision-making situations, and this tends to be one of those (for those of you who've known me for years, quit laughing, it's not funny). There is the potential for hurt feelings and loud voices or screams. I remember working through items in my mother's house with my sister. Before we were done, we were both in tears.

Second, what is the current perspective around things. For those of you who have not watched, the lines at thrift stores and Goodwill have been huge over the past months. With everyone at home more than usual, the current perspective is that now is a good time to eliminate useless items. Other things affecting current perspective are people's age and how they are playing for the long term. I don't want to make my children sort through any more than absolutely necessary when I am no longer here, so I try to deal with it now. The exception, of course, is the shop. Everything there is important and will all be wanted by someone down the line. I guess one or both of my children will have incredibly well set up shops at some time.

The third thing driving the valuation of items is how long you've had them. If something has been in your family/possession for fifty years, it has a greater value than something added to the house today. I know we could have gotten rid of much of the kids take-home work from school if we had done it then. But, load it in totes and move it five times over almost thirty years and it is much harder to get rid of something. We are there on some of the artwork the kids did when they were young. The most interesting thing for me was I remember running into those boxes of schoolwork of mine when we were taking care of mom's house. I hope there was not a gold brick hiding in one of the boxes as I opened them, looked to see what was in the box, and got rid of the whole box.

So, in the midst of all of this thought about things and what is the value, I have found a way to move our piano to someone where it will truly be valued. We bought this piano when we were in Kearney, MO from a traveling piano salesman, a story in and of itself and it worked wonderfully for the kids to take lessons and learn to play. I doubt it has been played in the last ten years. Anyway, the place I did the last library installation has been trying to figure out where to get a piano, and we were more than happy to offer it up. I love it when you can take an item which is not of great value to you anymore and move it to a place, or to people, that will love having it. This is the case here. Yeah, it just makes me smile.

Speaking of things being relocated, the time has finally come for the teardrop to make its way to Maine. This month, I have a transporter  picking it up to deliver it to Jaye and Karen. I am so excited and I hope they just love it. It has been a joy to build, and it will be nice to regain about a quarter of my Toybox. Of course I already have plans for the space. I am also looking for the next big project, so if you have something in mind, it may not be a bad time to reach out to me. I hope you are all having successful weeks, mine has been very good, and I hope the weekend also goes well for you.

Metallurgy

 
We learn many strange little things in a lifetime. One thing I learned when I was in the bolt business was about the manner a piece of steel could be made brittle through repeated bending, or flexing. The easiest example of this is to take a coat hanger and bend it back an forth. The first thing the wire will do is get hot. Then at some point, the wire will break. What has happened is that through the bending, the steel has actually gotten harder, to the point it will no longer bend, at which point it breaks.  This is called work hardening, or strain hardening. Sometimes it is called embrittlement. Many of us have taken advantage of this to break off a piece of wire .

When my grandmother worked at the County Engineer's office, she used to tell me about an extreme example of this effect. It is called metal crystallization and happens when a piece of steel is stressed thousands of times over a long period of time. The molecules in the steel actually line up and if you have a piece of crystallized steel fail, inside it will look more line a rock than it does steel. Grandma used to tell us that almost all of the old "pony truss" bridges in the state were like this and if you took a sledge hammer and hit the rivet in the corner of the bridge where all of the parts came together, it was possible the bridge would fail.

Be clear, I am in no way suggesting attempting such an act.

So, what does this have to do with the world we are living in? I think for many of us, we have been repeatedly stressed by the world we are in. Whether it be COVID-19, or getting our children educated, figuring out work, personal health, and probably fifteen other things I am not thinking of, the world has been bending us back and forth, repeatedly. Based on everything going on, we have been work hardened. And for some of us, we are approaching the point where we could actually break. Some already have broken.

In talking with a group of my colleagues last week, there was discussion around "decision fatigue." I was amazed to find  a definition for this around COVID-19. From Medicalexpress.com,  "The concept of exhaustion and stress after making choices is known as decision fatigue. After months of assessing the risk and benefit of daily choices during the corona-virus crisis, people are tired." I was surprised to find a definition, but it seems pretty accurate. For those I work with, everyone is tired of all of the non-normal decisions needed in 2020. As we all know, there has been little normal about this year.

I also took a little time last week to ask questions of friends who operate call centers. I wanted to know about the length of calls they are experiencing this year. Interestingly enough, both friends say their average call time is up this year over last. I would suspect there are a hundred different ways to explain this, but I am going with the explanation that people need more interpersonal interaction this year as what they normally experience is gone, to some degree or another. Who would have ever thought people would replace the conversations they have with others at work or in the grocery store, with time on a call with a telemarketer. 

What do you think we should do with all of this? It seems to me it is time to take a little better care of ourselves. This could take many different forms. Maybe for some of you it is a long bath. Maybe it is going for a long walk, or a bike ride, or talking to your family members over the phone, Skype, or Face-time. Maybe it is disconnecting from all of the information feeds of the day. Whatever it is, we need to find a way to take one or two of the "bends" life has given us out of our worlds. It is time to make sure we are not stressed and flexed so much we become strain hardened.

In situations like this, I  head toward food. It is the great equalizer of the world for me. I am generally a "meat and potatoes" Iowa boy, but with today's topic it really seems like there is one go-to item.  Yup, you got it. Peanut brittle. Maybe peanut brittle could be the item that helps set some of this aside. Below is a recipe from Sara's side of the family. I know it is typically a Christmas treat, but maybe September needs a little this year.

Thank you all for following my musings. I hope I continue to bring a smile, or something to think about.  Have an awesome weekend.

An Extra Step

I'm not sure how everyone else feels, but I find myself exhausted. Given everything going on with 2020, there are plenty of reasons for this and you probably have one you are partial to. I've thought a lot about this. Everything takes at least one or more extra steps this year. I believe this is related to the pandemic.

Take something as relatively simple as going to the grocery store. In times past (last year) if you needed something you swung in when you were in the area, picked it up and came home. Pretty simple.

Not anymore.

Other things we consider these days: 

• Do I really need this?
• Should I do this as an online order or go in person?
• Will they have the product in stock?
• When should I go to have the least contact with others?
• Will other patrons be wearing masks?
• Where can I shop that they really care about my safety?

These are the thoughts just about shopping for groceries.

Admittedly, some of these were in the back of our minds historically, but have really come to the forefront. Now think about going out to dinner. We probably averaged a couple of times a week prior to March 2020. It was often a last minute decision when nobody wanted to cook. Sometimes we chose to go to to a "drive-through" and bring food home, which we still do, but often we chose to eat at a restaurant. Since March, that option has been a "hard no". The places we frequented for years in the Des Moines area haven't seen us for seven or eight months. And, as I said at the beginning of this, it has added extra steps to everything around this.

With all of this there are trade-offs, just like what happens with almost everything in life. 

Let's take cooking. I'm not sure about you, but when the pandemic started, I thought of myself two ways where cooking was concerned. First, I thought I was okay at it. I could find my way around the kitchen and it had been a few years since I absolutely destroyed anything while cooking. The second thing I thought about my ability to cook regarded what I was willing to try. I had a certain number of things I would cook and could accomplish regularly. That was the sum total of my cooking repertoire. 

Enter 2020 and the pandemic. I would have gotten WAY sick of the things I regularly cooked. You can only have breakfast for dinner so many times. But 2020 forced us to do things differently. We cook more at home, or eat peanut butter sandwiches. One thing I am truly thankful for in all of this is the companies who came to market with recipes and meal ingredients shipped directly to our homes - companies like Home Chef and Blue Apron. We just celebrated four years with Home Chef on August 28th. We skipped a few weeks, but in round numbers, they've shipped over twelve hundred dinner servings into our home. This explains why every time I go to look for a box to use for anything, there are a few Home Chef boxes around the house and at the Toybox. It's helped me to learn to be a better cook and has caused me to stretch my palate as to flavors and items I like. Without question, I will never like the taste of truffles or truffle oil. It tastes like dirt to me. Anyway, with the extra steps required around meals and cooking, I am thankful someone stepped in to help me.

The final thing I need to talk about in the light of adding extra steps has been around the supply chain this year. I have friends in virtually every part of the business world. Anyone who has a physical product needing to be sourced, at one time or another there's been a disruption. One friend waited months for dishwashers and other appliances he used to be able to get in three days. My work has a vendor who has historically been able to provide full loads of product in 3-5 days. Now, their loads dribble in a little at a time over multiple weeks. 

Each of us has to think about the way things work. At the beginning of the pandemic, when toilet paper was almost impossible to get, one thing I thought about was the reality of household and institutional toilet paper being produced in a specific ratio to each other. Suddenly, the institutional side wasn't being hit as hard as residential. I did a little research, and found that I could purchase large institutional rolls with no problem. If we are ever able to visit each other's homes again, don't be surprised by the toilet paper in our bathroom. 

I would also bet that when bacon was hard to find, you'd have gone to a meat distributor, and had no trouble buying a thirty pound purveyor's box of bacon. It would have just taken an extra step or two. 

2020 has been about taking the extra steps, and it has made us all weary, in one way or another.

I hope you find a way to relax and unwind over this long weekend at the end of our summer. Relax and take care of yourself and those close to you. It is the right thing to do.  Take care.

Gentle Breeze

Daniel Acker, Getty Images

There are not many times Iowa comes to the forefront of the news, but I believe last week was one of them.  Last Monday, central Iowa experienced a derecho.  I have lived here my whole life and I had to look up the word. A derecho is a storm of straight line winds with gusts exceeding 100 mph. According to one source, a Iowa is as prone to derechos as Florida is to hurricanes*.

The closest thing I can remember was July 1999 in Minnesota. I went out to look up the information on that event and while it was referred to as a derecho, I remember it being called a "blow-down," mowing across 500,000 acres of Boundary Waters. The reason I remember the event is because my sister, Jaye, was in the middle of it. She literally hid under large fallen trees and when it was over had to hike back out of the area. It was incredibly scary for her, as was last week's storm for people here in Iowa.

From what I can tell, the storm destroyed about ten million acres of cropland across a swath in the middle of the state.  If (big if) the acreage is correct, and half of the crop was lost, and it was all in corn, the lost crops would be just about 1 billion bushels of corn lost this year.  Last year's corn yield in Iowa was 2.58 billion bushels, so it is easy to see this was an unbelievable storm and loss. Beyond the farming loss, over eight thousand homes were damaged or destroyed and at one point half a million people were without power.

In the midst of all of this, I believe we only had three fatalities, which is amazing and a reason to be thankful.  The resilience of the state and the people here never ceases to amaze me. I have to say thank you to all of the utility companies sending crews to help out. I heard there were even crews from British Columbia here helping. Simply amazing. 

One area that was hit was northeast of here around Perry. My company has a bulk plant there and other than no electricity and finding part of the neighbor's roof in the plant, things were fine. Late last week, when I talked to the manager and asked how things were going, he told me everything was taking longer, but all was good. Then he told me with his spare time, after cleaning up his home and helping with family, he was out helping neighbors and customers get things cleaned up. I'm sure this happens with this type of event everywhere but in the middle of a time when it seems like so much conversation and writing is derisive, it makes me smile to hear people just be good with each other.

Most of you know I am in the petroleum business. One thing I discovered in the middle of all this is there is a significant similarity between the petroleum business and the ice cream business. Neither of them works well without electricity. In the days we were without power in our  Des Moines plant, we had to be creative in getting trucks filled and product out to customers needing to work or run generators. 

During the same period of time, without power or a backup of any type, my favorite ice cream place, Hickman Soft Serve, lost all their product. Once we could get back out and around, and I discovered they were shut down, I worried they may not be able to come back from this. As far as I know, this was their first year in this business and although I have done all I can to help them, the sign on the drive through saying, "Closed - No Electricity" was worrisome. I saw the sign on Sunday when I needed ice cream.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week.  I was still worrying about them, so I called to see if they were open.  When they answered the phone, I recognized the woman's voice. She's usually at the window to take my order. I asked if they were open and she told me yes. Ah, the joy. Then she asked if I was the guy in the brown pickup truck. Of course, I said I was. She told me I needed to wait as the ice cream novelty I usually bought wouldn't be ready for a few days. 

We have lived several places in the United States, but conversations like this make me know that this is home.

If you lost power, or had damage from the storm, I hope you are getting back to normal. I might suggest that today would be a good day for ice cream. Of course, I think any day is a good day for ice cream.

Take care and be careful.

* https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/08/19/iowa-derecho-hurricane/

Support

In the middle of this year we call 2020, I believe many of us are discovering how much support is required for organizations and people around us. Watching the news has become something to avoid, as it is possible to focus on the things going wrong and find yourself going down a rabbit hole created by the media. However, I continue to be amazed at stories about people doing for others in a way rarely experienced in my lifetime. Many of these extraordinary acts have been around funds for groups needing help, but many have just been simple acts of human kindness. 

Some of you know I work in an industry which can't work from home. Every day, we need to deliver product so all of you can continue in your daily endeavors. We deliver fuel and lubricants. But, as I said, the care we see from both inside and outside the company is amazing. 

Today, I was talking to a salesperson for the company. He is wired to want to get in front of current and potential customers to make a connection so as to continue business growth. Today, we discussed having the respect to stay away from others if they want us to. There are times basic respect is such a powerful thing. As we talked, I told him the story from a couple of weeks ago. I had a salesperson show up without any type of notice, making a true "cold call" at our front door. Not only did I explain they were not welcome in our facility at this time, but I also made a mental note they will most likely never see any business from us. Although respect has, on occasion, fallen out of the business equation, I believe it is more important than ever now. In working with another business or another person, if you begin by making them feel unsafe or insecure, what are the hopes the interaction will come to a good result? I have a ton of respect for the sales team working for me, knowing they are listening and being respectful of the customer's wishes.

The other thing I continue to see is companies stepping out into unknown channels to help in the middle of everything. We have seen large manufacturers step up to help produce items in short supply. We have seen local companies supporting food banks in ways they have never before. And we've seen companies doing extra to try to keep their employees safe. Every one of these examples we see from businesses is being repeated and duplicated in the personal sector as well. I know of many trying to figure out how to support teachers and children in the incredibly difficult decisions being made around education. I know of neighbors who are paying much greater attention to those around them. There are a lot of good folks trying to do the right thing to help all of us get through this pandemic.

So today, I'm going to ask you for your support. As many of you know, I am a big fan of the Iowa State Fair. I've missed a few years, but overall I would tell you I've attended at least half of the years of my life. I love the experience. I love the fact that things change at the Fair, but they do so slowly. I know where to find my favorite lemonade vendor and where to find the best foot-long hot dog. They've been in the same place for decades. But this year they will not be in the same place as the Fair has been cancelled. I believe it is the right decision and am hopeful we will be back for the 2021 season. Like so many other things, in order to make sure the Fair goes forward, there are ongoing needs which must be met. 

Many people think the Iowa State Fair is supported through taxes, but most of the support for the fair and the fairgrounds comes in other ways. One way has been the Corn Dog kickoff. This event, usually held in July, is where people meet and bid, both through silent and live auctions, as well as having the opportunity to feast on many of the standard fair foods. This year, like the fair itself, the Corn Dog Kickoff has not been possible because of the pandemic.

  

In lieu of the live event, the decision was made to have an on-line auction to support the fair. This year, I built and donated a cedar park bench that converts to a picnic table.

There will be hundreds of items available through the auction.  I would encourage you to take a look. It is a great place to start your holiday shopping or just get something fun for yourself. 

The link to the website for the auction is: http://www.blueribbonfoundation.org/events/no-fair-i-do-care-benefit-auction

The auction begins at 10:00 AM August 13th and runs through 10:00 PM August 23.  I hope you will take time to check out the offerings.