Listen – Dave Glardon

Good morning! I hope your day is starting off well.

It’s hard to believe December is finally here. This has been the longest year ever, I do believe, and not just because it had one extra day in February. That was just icing on the cake. I’ve always said that when you skip a Monday at work, you get four more to make up for it. I’m not sure if that explains 2020, but I’m willing to consider all possibilities.

Normally by now we’d be getting in the holiday spirit. Houses would be decorated, trees would be up, department stores would be bustling with shoppers, holiday music would dominate the airwaves, and in the parking lots people would be giving one another the finger as they battled for the last “good” parking spot. Okay, that’s pretty much all year.

My outdoor lights have been up for a month, but we just turned them on last week. That’s not as much about preparation as a fat guy who isn’t safe on the ladder anymore, a day of decent weather, and a grandson who needed money. You play the hand you’re dealt. Besides, he’s young and bounces easier than I do. If I hit the ground, things break. Like underground pipes.

I decided one day that I needed to inspect the seals on our RV’s roof. The book says that needs to be done twice a year, and I’m all about preventive maintenance. Yes, I’m really that old. Only problem is, inspecting the seals means getting up there where you can actually see them. On a rounded fiberglass roof. Twelve feet off the ground. With an asphalt safety net. No thank you.

I’ve always been able to fix just about anything. I learned these things out of necessity. When you can’t afford a mechanic, you figure it out. With each success, I became more confident. There were setbacks. Like that time I replaced my brakes and five miles down the road the pedal went to the floor … with a Cadillac stopped in front of me. That’ll get your attention.

But I learned something from each mistake. A fraction of the air it takes to stop a semi will mess up your whole day in a hydraulic brake system. Go figure. And we won’t even talk about the time I repacked the rear wheel bearings on my VW Beetle and later that night my left-rear tire went bouncing across A1A in Key West. Oops!

My greatest challenge was acknowledging my limitations. And there was really only one. I had no fear of tearing an engine apart, but I’ve never seen the inside of a transmission because transmissions are the automotive version of Mouse Trap. I have this vision of removing a single screw and twelve springs go flying across the room. “Transmission broken?” It is now.

But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to recognize those limitations a little better. It’s not that I can’t do the job. I could climb under a car just as easily today as I did forty years ago. It’s getting back up that’s a problem. That, and this knuckle on my left hand that likes to lock up any time I bend my finger. So, I have to keep that finger perfectly straight. Don’t take it personally.

There are things we do really well, and for each of us, those things are different. Can I open a clogged drain line? Sure. Am I the best person to do it? Not in a million years. Tell me to wire a new switch, and I’m completely in my element. But when it came to brain surgery, I paid somebody else to do it. My wife pretty much insisted on that.

There’s no shame in admitting our shortcomings. Whether related to age, ability, agility, or just a general willingness to do the job, there will always be some things we do better than others. And for those things we can’t do quite as well as we’d like, there are others who can do the job with their eyes closed. At least that’s what my surgeon said.

It’s the same when it comes to our dreams. If we’re the expert on how to achieve those dreams, why are we still dreaming about it? Sometimes, we have to throw a question out there and listen to the responses. They don’t all have to make sense. They don’t even have to be something we wanted to hear. But all too often, the most insane answer is the best.

Have you ever found something you’d lost, and then proclaimed, “It was in the last place I looked!” Well, duh! But that’s pretty much true of all the things we seek. Learn where they can be found and how to get them, and it’s simply a matter of doing the work. You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t even have to hire one. All you have to do is open your mind and listen.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Good morning, and happy Hump Day! I hope your day is off to a great start.

For somebody who has spent his entire life working around computers and high-tech systems, and writing more than more than 20,000 pages of detailed text on how those systems work, I’m a complete moron when it comes to the systems I use at home. I know how to turn the TV on (most times), I can change a channel (I’m that good), and I can log onto the internet. That’s it.

If you thought I was making this up, my wife would quickly step in and set you straight. She uses features on her phone I didn’t even know mine has. She’s even better than the grandkids, and that’s saying a lot. They’re not allowed to play with my phone because, unless they take it back to the home screen, I might as well toss it in the trash. It’ll never work again – until they fix it.

Most times, it’s not an issue. Unless I want to change the TV from Roku back to cable or watch a movie on the Blu-Ray player. We have four remotes for the TV and associated gadgets, and they work like the combination lock at Fort Knox. Everything has to be done in just the right order, or the TV screen goes blank with a flashing message that says, “Let the kids give it a try.”

I’m trying to get mobile internet in the RV, and I would learn just as much by reading the page in Mandarin. Basically, here’s what I’ve been able to figure out:

It’ll cost more than my house and RV payment combined.
I can use high-speed internet for 16 minutes.
After 16 minutes, it switches to smoke-signals.
If I want an additional 16 minutes, the price quadruples.
The equipment won’t be available until sometime next year.
I’ll get kicked off the internet every time it rains.
If we watch TV, we’ll run out of data on the first commercial.

Exaggeration, you say? Then we’re not reading the same contract. And I know if I walk into the Mobile Internet for Dummies Store, they’ll take one look at me and start planning their vacation to Tahiti. There’s a reason I don’t talk to automotive mechanics. Anything I say can and will be used against me in the final repair estimate. I didn’t even know my car had a fragistat.

We all like to think we’re pretty knowledgeable, and I believe most of us know a little more than we think. Except my oldest grandson. He still needs to come down a notch or two, but that goes with the territory. I always said technical writing is about knowing what you don’t know. Seems to me a few other people could take a page out of that book as well.

You see it in business a lot. Walls go up the moment you start talking to some people. They’re one step ahead of you. They know exactly where you’re headed, and it’s not anyplace they want to go. They’ve never tried what you’re suggesting, but they have a dozen reasons it won’t work. Why? Because they didn’t think of it first.

There is a story about a truck that got stuck under a bridge. A dozen people tried everything imaginable, and it wouldn’t budge. If only they could raise the bridge one inch. A little boy kept trying to make a suggestion, but nobody would listen. Finally, just to shut him up, the driver asked, “What’s your brilliant idea, genius?” He replied, “Let some air out of the tires.”

Sometimes we need to trust our knowledge and know that it’s enough. Other times we need to state an opinion and listen to the responses. And sometimes, we need to just be quiet and listen. If I want to learn to fly, I’m not going in there to tell the instructor how it’s done. He’s done this hundreds of times. He may know just a little more about it than I do.

If there’s something you want to teach, speak. But if there’s something you need to learn, listen. Learn from those who are have done the things you want to do. Listen to those who have gone before you. And hold your opinion until you know enough to speak. Remember these words – tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

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