Dateline: Delco

Man beaten by 5 kids drinking in woods.

In Folcroft.

No shit.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/delco/Man-beaten-by-5-kids-drinking-in-woods.html?cmpid=124488469

There were people in the Bible complaining about kids these days but really, Delaware County, what is going on?

If you own a home in Folcroft near the woods you would have to assume there's a possibility of teenagers using said wooded area to imbibe. You should not assume, however, you're going to catch a beat down for telling the kids to GTFO.

If my friends somehow wrangled three Miller Genuine Drafts from their parents basement fridge you can bet your ass we wouldn't be looking for attention. Those 36 ounces of swill would have been finished as fast as humanly possible for a 14 to 17 year-old. And if we heard some branches cracking and felt the heat around the corner? Two words: I'm gone.

And we definitely would have told each other how drunk we were, but I digress.

Now, it's ok for kids to beat a grown man who has a legitimate concern regarding smoke rising from a wooded area behind his house. He wasn't trolling the neighborhood boreassing honest, good kids who were walking down the street. He was checking out smoke from a fire, in the woods.

Somewhere along the way pissed off people became parents. They didn't want to give a shit about anyone else so why would their kids?

The officer in the story says they have a history with these kids. A history with the police at 14? The only history I had with the police when I was 14 was when my bike got stolen from Glenolden Park (I'm still looking for that guy).

I hate sounding like the grumpy old man, but man, I don't know about kids these days.

GTD

I'm trying to incorporate the elements of David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" into my life. I need it now more than ever so here we are, back at the blog.

It's been so long since I've seen you, I had to submit a password reset.

I'm sorry, I won't do that again. It's all about the clips, some rants, raves, a little opinion and "Am I Crazy?" from here on out.

For now let's start with an anti-blog post that my life mate Pierzy and I did together. It didn't quite work out the way I envisioned but it's a good start.

Here's the gist: I'm handy, he's not so much. I like DIY, he likes TV. I'm trying to get him over to the dark side, or at least get him to enjoy a good Home Depot trip.

Enjoy. If you make it to the end there's a special treat.

Pierzy: Mike, you had some strong feelings about my Ikea post, but it wasn't the first time you've tried to get me to embrace my DIY side. We've each owned a home for several years now and while you are constantly doing renovations or improvements, I'm usually writing about Blake Griffin's latest dunk. This seems to disappoint you, so I'll yield the floor to you to explain and then I'll respond.

Mike: I thought you'd never ask.

To break it down for a business-minded person such as yourself, it comes down to a simple equation:

(Need x Want) / Cost

Or something like that.

You and I both know you Need to fix your basement wall, we both know you don't Want to fix it, couple that with the Cost of hiring a professional and you see why I tend to do the majority of home improvements myself.

I paint a lot on the weekends, I don't Want to do that, but with three kids, I Need the extra money.

The "know-how" part comes with experience. I understand you may be intimidated by the thought of mixing hydraulic cement and slathering it on your walls like cream cheese on a bagel at brunch, but, it's something that Needs to get done.

Another way to look at it… I don't Want to save money, but I Need to save money. I could go the rest of my life saying "ah fuck it, I'll let someone else deal with it." But, there will come a time when I have to atone for my financial misdeeds.

It's been my experience that the more you can do yourself, the more you'll be willing to learn. For example, you only need to install a garbage disposal once to learn how to do it. You don't need to become a plumber, it helps if you have a buddy who knows how to run the electric, but, if that ever needs to be replaced you can knock it out during the third re-run of SportsCenter that you're watching.

That's my view. I'm not saying you need to turn your basement into the New Yankee Workshop, but the more you're willing to learn, the more you'll be willing to do.

Pierzy: I get all that. I do. For all of the hyperbole about I can’t do, I actually get by pretty well. I even spackled last night. Can I replace a sink? No. But I can do the minor stuff on a day-to-day basis. I made minor repairs to my toilet and other stuff. For the big things, I’m lucky to know a plumber that will do a great job and not take advantage of me monetarily. I think part of it may also be governed by circumstance. I live in the city. I don’t have a garage and I don’t have any land or grass other than a small patio that gets hosed off once every spring. I don’t have the room to do much in my house, so I don’t do it. Furthermore, my house is 90 years old, so opening up a wall or anything like that often presents more problems than not doing anything at all.

In regards to your statement about being willing to learn, I have two responses. First, you’re right. I have an aversion to learn stuff, but it’s a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Am I not good (and don’t enjoy) house work because I’m bad at it? Or am I bad at it because I’m not good and therefore don’t enjoy it? There comes a point in time when it’s possible that I’m simply not good at it. Even if I read every book, watch every show (I watch a lot of HGTV and DIY – it’s not just Hoarders), and work with someone more capable, I may not become all that good. It’s more than the desire. By your rationale, if every first-round draft choice had the desire to be good, nothing else matters. That’s not the case.

Secondly, to me, it’s all about the net result. I chose to go to business school after work to try to up my salary. If I hadn’t done that, perhaps my mid-to-late 20’s would have been spent learning some of these tricks. However, you can’t be everything all the time so you have to pick and choose and if it nets out to a positive, what’s the difference? For example, let’s say I write an article that takes a week to write and I need to pay a guy $1,500 to fix a leak in my guest room. Had I not written that article, I could have spent that time fixing the leak. But, if I sell the article for $2,000 (note: this has never happened, I’m just using it for the sake of an argument), then it’s a net gain of $500. And while it would be lovely to say that I could both fix the leak and write the article, that’s not realistic.

Regarding your equation, I think it’s correct. If the need is 100 but the want is 0, the combination of the two is zero.

My question to you is: why does it seem to bother you so much? I can see the look of disappointment on your face when I can’t/won’t do something that you’ve done before or are willing to attempt. In a way it’s appreciated, because it’s almost like you look at me as a younger brother even though we’re the same age and you can see potential and have high expectations (like I don’t have enough of those), but whenever I choose to pay for someone to do something rather than do it myself I feel like I need to explain my reasoning to you. Of course, that could just be my neurosis speaking…

Mike: It doesn't bother me. I really don't go home and say to my wife "oh my God, can you believe Pierz doesn't know how to fix a sink?" I know your neurosis says I do, but I really don't.

It may just be that I'm trying to help you out. I'm not the greatest craftsman, I know my limits. I'm not trying to carve a canoe out of a tree. I'm just trying to fix a leak so I don't have to pay anyone and help you out so your net after selling that $2,000 article is closer to $1,900 than it is $500.

When I moved back from Arizona I had a shitty hammer and a dollar store ratchet set. That's it. My buddy came over my house to fix my light switch one day and asked me for some wire cutters, when I said I didn't have any (how many times do you need a pair of wire cutters when you live in a condo in Scottsdale?), he looked at me with the same look I probably give you.

That was an anomaly in the wiring. All of the Googling and guessing I did couldn't answer the question because it was a fluke only a professional would even know to look for. But, we worked it out, he taught me a few things and I've since applied them to other aspects of home improvement.

As you said, I'm lucky to have a friend in the field who helped me out. All I'm trying to do is pay it forward.

When it comes to careers I don't think there needs to be a line in the sand that you can't cross. I go to meetings and talk about ROI and risk analysis and create the almighty PowerPoint Presentations but then on the weekends I change my brake pads if need be.

I had a conversation about money with one of my (four, yes four) supervisors about money. He was talking about a kid he knew in high school who was "rich" but the house with two swimming pools was a house of cards. As soon as the housing market collapsed they went to zero.

I'm trying to keep it balanced. I don't make bad money, but I hate giving it to people for things I can do myself. The receptionist at the dealership didn't know what to do when I told her to fail my car's inspection because they were going to charge me $300 for a set of brake pads and rotors that cost me about $75 and an hour in the driveway. They had never heard someone say they'll change the brakes. That's $225 leftover for diapers and milk, which believe me, doesn't last as long as you would think.

I just don't want to be dependant on anyone. It pained me to take my truck to a mechanic last month when it wasn't running right. But I knew the issue was beyond my basic mechanical ability and trust the guy who works on my cars. In the end, he fixed it for a fair price and it's paid for itself with side jobs.

I guess, in the end, when it all hits zero, I don't want to rely on anyone for anything but maybe that's just my neurosis speaking.

Pierzy: All of what you said makes total sense. Of course, one learns by doing and through trial-and-error. If I’m a 12 out of 100 in terms of handiness, when I bought my house I was about a 3. So I’ll take that improvement. Baby steps, Bill Murray-style.

For me, I think it goes back to you need vs. want equation. My need to make unrequired improvements (cosmetically, etc…) is outweighed by my not wanting to do it. I’d rather leave it the way it is. I realize that this seems insane and I think I’m slowly changing my tune because the bigger projects (obviously) cost more money.

Plus, while I spend too much money on going out to dinner, I’m on top of all of my bills and clawing my way out of student loan and credit card debt. We make fun of my car, but it’s paid off so I’m going to drive that thing until it disintegrates. It’s not like I drive around places that would impress anyone. I drive to the office and back. If I could afford something nicer, then sure I would splurge, but right now other things take priority. I think that’s a big piece that so many Americans don’t realize – unless your career depends on it, those things don’t matter.

Getting back to the house stuff, if I’m being totally honest, I think part of it is the fear of making a mistake. When I have tried to do something, I often do something wrong so that now I’ve created more work. Rather than deal with the “failure,” I’d rather just not deal at all. And that’s a weird thing to say because I don’t feel that way in any other aspect of my life…well, maybe asking out young ladies but I’m now married so that’s a moot point. If/when I move to the ‘burbs or into a home with land and a garage, maybe things will be different. I already feel myself going in that direction…it’s just going to take some time.

A weekend passed over which we didn’t discuss this topic. However, something interesting occurred – I did some improvements to my house based upon Mike’s experience and directions.

Pierzy: As you know, this past weekend, I took a major step forward in the home improvement realm. My basement walls had a parge coating that was held together by dirt and when water made its way behind the walls, the wall began to crumble and at least one-third of my basement had dirt raining down upon it at all times. Taking your advice, I plugged the holes with a hydraulic cement mixture. In the process, I destroyed my hands (I didn’t wear gloves) and my fingers are still extremely sore as I type this. While I’m happy that the job is basically completed – I have a few more spots to do and I need to paint over it – I don’t feel any special amount of pride that I completed it. If I could afford it, I would have much rather have had a group of guys do it professionally and finish in a day. My father also suggested that I hire someone, saying, “Isn’t that why you went to school?” So you can see where I get it from.

Mike: Hydraulic cementing a basement wall isn't the best job to start with if you're looking for a sense of gratification and pride. It's a "gotta get done" job. It's not glamorous and it will chew up those pretty hands of yours. But, it's done. You saved a bunch of dough and it was a shitty weekend anyway, you didn't miss anyone's wedding.

Yeah, this is never getting published.

Pierzy: I’m glad I did it, but I would have preferred brunch.

I think this would be better on Kano Analysis.