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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Disorganized and happy about it



The outside stove is now hooked up to propane and runs fine. I baked a nice chicken dinner in the oven to test it.

Every single part and fitting was recycled -salvaged from all over. Sure, it's a pain to have to rummage through piles of old stuff. It's really nice to have brand new shiny parts fresh off the hardware store shelves. The job goes a bit faster when every piece doesn't have to be removed from something else and cleaned. As great as that is, there's a certain satisfaction in doing a good job and not spending any money. Subtract the time it would have taken for a trip into town and salvaged parts are quicker.

By the way, anyone messing around with propane connections, make sure everything is checked for leaks. This is not done with a cigarette lighter. Fill a spray bottle with soapy water. Spray all the connections. Bubbles are a sign that the connection is leaking.

Some people have all their parts sorted and organized. I'm not one of those people. Should anyone clean and organize my stuff, I'd be unable to find anything. Normal organization and I don't get along. My poor dad is just the opposite. It used to drive him nuts when he helped me on a job and all my tools and parts were scattered to the four directions. Never mind that I knew where they were. The mere fact that everything wasn't in it's own labeled jar, box or place on the pegboard, drove him to distraction.

Back in my firefighting days, my truck was always organized exactly the same way, even though it went against my nature. Every firefighter had to know exactly where everything was. Seconds lost looking for something could be the difference between life and death. For anything less than death being on the line, I quickly slip back to my disorganized ways.

A messy mind is a creative mind.

-Sixbears

16 comments:

  1. I must be a cotton-pickin' GENIUS then! lol

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  2. And me Gorges! You should see my workshop! :)

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  3. Amen. I may not be able to remember what I did the day before yesterday but I can certainly find some obscure part or tool out in the piles around my garage.

    It drove me crazy with my wife always being on my case to organize everything. "Throw that junk away!". I have FIFTEEN different little parts cabinets with the little drawers now and I can't find a damn thing anymore! The coffee cans were working just fine thank you very much.

    All that and I still can't see the top of my work bench. Ya just move the piles around to do what you are doing. I need a bigger garage. Better yet, SHE needs a bigger garage so she can get the hell out of mine.

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    1. Love those coffee cans. I've three workbenchs that I can't see the top of.

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  4. My Dad was like your Dad is. EVERYTHING in place. If I borrowed a tool, I had better bring it back clean and return it to where it belonged. He was a precision machinist for most of his life-and a disel engineer on a Mississippi riverboat when he was younger. He would have loved to help you build your stove and your boat!

    Phyllis (N/W Jersey)

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    1. I bet he would have loved my projects. My dad does, even though my disorganization annoys him.

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  5. Well done. Can of paint and she'll look brand new....

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  6. There is a big distinction between "neat" and "organized". It may be pretty to have everything labelled in its own drawer, but what matters is whether you can find it. David Allen's definition of organization is having everything with the same meaning (e.g. "bills to be paid") in the same place, and everything in that place having the same meaning, whether it is a file folder in a desk drawer or a stack on the refrigerator. And it sounds like you're like me, a "kinesthetic" organizer -- you need to handle stuff to remember where it is. So I'm good with setting up my own "neat" system, and I can get along if someone else does a thorough job, but there is hell to pay if someone just "neatens" up my stuff. Once someone else moves something, I have no idea where it is.

    And I have come up with a rule that serves me pretty well: if I can't find what I'm looking for in under a minute, I start cleaning up where I think it is until I find it.

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    1. That makes perfect sense -including the one minute rule.

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  7. Neat and organized; I don't seem to know what those words mean. I know one thing for sure, they don't pertain to me. . .

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    1. Seems to be a common issue among my readers. I feel in good company.

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    2. Im the same way. The best is when one of my buddys comes by to borrow a tool and im not home i tell them it is under the pile of sheds on the bench. Drives them nuts!

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    3. I bet it does! My friends know better than to even look.

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