Oct 6, 2010

I need order before I can start.  I'll spend an hour cleaning my garage before I rip three boards lengthwise for 8 minutes and put sawdust everywhere.  It's a mental block I have.  There are just some things that need to be a certain way before I can begin.  There are certain things that need to be done in a certain order.  There is an order to the mundane trivial things in life that has to be followed.  Out of this curse is a blessing however.  I question the way other things are done and ask myself is that the best way, and I have no issues removing everyone else's preconceptions on the way things are supposed to be.

This way of thinking works great for design.  I built a deck a few years ago, and imagined the deck rail parallel to a small stream waterfeature that ran between two ponds.  My children were probably just walking about this time, but I designed a mixture of large structural deck railing going from side to side between the supports and strong enough so that the kids could climb up the rail and peer into the stream.  The norm on deck rails is vertical.  Many couldn't see my vision, but once it was complete there was no mistaking that my ability to see things in a bigger framework of life is better for everyone...
...most of the time.

When emptying the dishwasher, I could almost blow a gasket if someone doesn't start with the silverware in the open door, then slide the bottom rack out and empty those items, then slide out the top rack and put the stemware away.  If you start in any other order you get water on the dry dishes below.  And sometimes it is that gritty water that holds a bit of Cream-of-wheat still in the concave, upturned bottoms of your drinking glasses.  It just makes sense to do things a certain way.  Why is the rest of the world so oblivious to this?