Why Projects Don't Get Done (at least at my house...)
Date: Sun, January 8, 2006
My Pietenpol project has been on hold for a while, I needed a drill press to make really nice wing rib gussets (I like the round ones...), so I put it on my Amazon list. I waited 2 months for Christmas; lo and behold, I got a drill press! No problem. It wasn't really a delay, because I've been working on the build logging software (latest progress can be seen here.), so I didn't feel like I was wasting time.
I open up the box on Saturday, and what do I find? I have to buy kerosene to remove all the oil that it came packed in. Grumble grumble. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I really hate shopping. Unless I can do it online in 5 minutes, then I'll grumble my way through. So I finally had the time today to go to several different stores trying to find Kerosene (naturally the instructions explicitely state you can't use anything else...). Home Depot carries it btw, back by the bathroom and barbecue equipment. 1 and 5 gallon sizes.
It's the little crap that slows down your progress. If you are actually working on real parts of your project, everything is wonderful, except half the time you have to waste just.. Going to the store! Cleaning up! Heck, working for a living.. Bah, who needs it?
But what do you do? You're doing the project for the love of doing it, there's no other logical reason to build an airplane (the old adage is: "if you want to build, build, if you want to fly, buy", and it's really pretty true...).
If there's something you have always dreamed of doing as an escapist fantasy, there is something you will come to realize when you actually get started -- All the petty niggling annoyances and problems that you have always had to deal with will not go away, they are still there. The pure platonic life you imagined went along with building the project doesn't exist. The world is imperfect.
Aaaah, but damnit, I'm still building an airplane, and it's still a blast!
I open up the box on Saturday, and what do I find? I have to buy kerosene to remove all the oil that it came packed in. Grumble grumble. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I really hate shopping. Unless I can do it online in 5 minutes, then I'll grumble my way through. So I finally had the time today to go to several different stores trying to find Kerosene (naturally the instructions explicitely state you can't use anything else...). Home Depot carries it btw, back by the bathroom and barbecue equipment. 1 and 5 gallon sizes.
It's the little crap that slows down your progress. If you are actually working on real parts of your project, everything is wonderful, except half the time you have to waste just.. Going to the store! Cleaning up! Heck, working for a living.. Bah, who needs it?
But what do you do? You're doing the project for the love of doing it, there's no other logical reason to build an airplane (the old adage is: "if you want to build, build, if you want to fly, buy", and it's really pretty true...).
If there's something you have always dreamed of doing as an escapist fantasy, there is something you will come to realize when you actually get started -- All the petty niggling annoyances and problems that you have always had to deal with will not go away, they are still there. The pure platonic life you imagined went along with building the project doesn't exist. The world is imperfect.
Aaaah, but damnit, I'm still building an airplane, and it's still a blast!