Articles To help Project Leaders
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|  | | | Wayne Botha - 2011 Model Honda CR-V |
In case you were wondering, here are highlights from the past few weeks.
1. Freddie (our cockerpoo and little bundle of joy) went in for scheduled dental surgery. The vet called before the surgery to confirm that he was about to be neutered. Oops!! (He is a rescue pet and this was taken care of years ago). Fortunately no harm done, but it could have been an interesting conversation after the fact.
2. My first ever experiment to brew a Belgian style beer (a Saison) is eye-opening. Firstly, this yeast strain ferments warm (70 to 90 degrees) where the ales that I create, all ferment in the 60 degrees range. Secondly, it ferments for a long time (30 days in primary), while my favorite ales finish primary fermentation in a week or less. The lesson is clear - just when you think you know all about a hobby, you realize that you only know enough to know what you still need to learn. Also, you can be an expert in one tiny area of a profession and clueless in the adjacent areas. (Thank you to my brewing buddies for telling me what to expect with this style.)
3. I was invited to join the board of Deacons at my church. I accepted, believing that there are no coincidences in life, and there is a greater purpose to this situation - it is certainly not because I am worthy of the responsibility.
4. Reminiscent of scenes from the 1986 movie, "The Money Pit", we repainted our upstairs bathroom. "How long can it take to paint a bathroom?", the project manager in me asked. My estimate = two days. Therefore, the plan was to start on Friday night, get the first coat of paint on everything, let it dry overnight, second coat on Saturday, let it dry overnight, and finish off on Sunday. Then, take some time out to enjoy a variety of my hand-crafted ales as reward for my work. Instead, life got in the way. As I scraped away the edges on one small chip in the paint on the wall, more and more, and more of the finishing peeled off, until the whole wall was down to the bare drywall. We needed to start from the first priming layers again. In addition, the sheen we chose was not correct for the bathroom, requiring a final coat of semi-gloss before we were satisfied. About one week later, I declared "Ready or not, the bathroom is FINISHED!" The lesson learned for project managers - "Your estimate is just an estimate - you don't know what is lurking beneath the surface of that project."
5. We had the hottest day, ever, in Connecticut yesterday, with 103 degrees. Thank goodness for Central Air-Conditioning.
6. My new 4-wheel drive CR-V has all sorts of intelligence built in, to help me drive. (With my experience of driving 100,000 ton tank transporters and an assortment of other military vehicles in semi-desert conditions, I am confident that I can drive a power-everything, automatic transmission, dinky SUV in perfect weather on a paved road.) The CR-V includes a sensor that activates some very noisy thing for more traction when it detects the need. However, my father's words come to mind when the stupid technology activates for no reason, (such as when driving over a speed bump while accelerating) "The more complicated a thing is, the more there is to go wrong." Honda engineers - listen up. If the traction creating activation gadget must engage when it is not needed, can't it at least do it silently?
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