Category Archives: Life Skills

Driving my car on a race track

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Two weeks ago I took my Audi S4 up to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for an Audi group track event. Spanning two days the event was a mix of classroom learning and track time, usually with an instructor in your passenger seat, coaching and giving feedback and advice as you drive around the track, pushing your car and yourself.

It was awesome!

Other than the winter driving school I attended this past winter, this is the first performance driving event I’ve done in my car, and my first one on a track. I took my Ducati on this same track about 10 years ago (which was also an amazing time). I learned an amazing amount about driving, and my car. I really pushed my car and myself and had a fun time doing it. I also met some great people from all walks of life and driving all types of cars. Hopefully it won’t be my last time on the track!

Thanks to everyone who put the event together, my awesome instructor Mark, and everyone I met there who made the experience that much cooler.

You can see video from another car in my group here (you actually can see my car right at the end when they’re pulling into the pit):

I Built a New Closet

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We replace the nasty stained brown carpet upstairs with maple hardwood flooring, and in the process had to remove the closet system that was in the master bedroom’s closet. Once we had removed it parts of it fell apart due to age/stress/fiberboard construction, etc… We decided the we didn’t want to put it back in.

We’d gotten an estimate from California Closets a while ago, but it was for close to eight grand, and that’s for a small closet. While their stuff looked decent, it was actually built with MDF not hardwood, and I couldn’t see paying that kind of money for pre-fabbed MDF.

So I decided to build it myself. I sat down with Emma and got her to layout what she wanted as far as shelving and hanging space. It actually turned out to be pretty simple. We have a nice dresser in the bedroom, so we didn’t need any drawers in the closet. We also didn’t need much shelving, just mostly hanging space, and some area to put shoes and a few small boxes (shoe shine kit, etc…). I drew out scaled blueprints and figured out the sizes and quantities of the cut wood I’d need, and then worked out the raw wood requirements from there.

At that point I tried to go to the local lumberyard, which is just down the street, however they don’t carry hardwood ply, which I wanted to use in a few places, so I found a lumberyard in Watertown which carried everything I wanted, and did next day delivery which was fantastic.

Keep in mind, before this the only thing I’ve really built was the woodshed, which while it does hold wood, and survived the winter perfectly, is not exactly a thing of beauty. Not all of it’s angles are 90 degrees, and it’s mostly just 2x4s and nails. So this was my first indoor quality wood working project.

I had to buy a few tools: router, jigsaw, new blades for my skill saw, clamps, googles, etc… My mother had her old table saw in storage, so we pulled that out and took it from Vermont down to our house. Unfortunately a missing fence, and a missing special blade changing wrench meant I wasn’t able to use it, and had to use the skill saw for 95% of the cuts, often using a 2×4 clamped down as a rough fence.

Lessons Learned:

  • Everything takes longer than you expect.
  • No floor, wall, or ceiling is actually straight and even, so you have to measure everything, no matter how good your paper plans are.
  • Having a table saw would be really nice and save a lot of time.
  • Don’t order materials when you’re tired. I now have 750 FEET of maple edging, instead of 750 inches.
  • 1″ hardwood and 3/4″ hardwood ply is heavy stuff to run up and down stairs all day.

I actually had a REALLY good time during the process and am annoyingly pleased with and proud of the results. So I’m buying a table saw and building a custom office desk and shelving, and then making some awesome bookshelves for the library, and then….. :)

The closet is maple and maple ply, with cedar flooring, and stainless steel hardware.

The Closet I Built!

The Closet I Built!

Figuring Out A Tip

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I know this is a poor excuse for a first Life Skills post, but I’m in Columbus, OH, working 16+ hour days this week, so you’ll have to cope:)

I usually tip just over 20%.  It’s easy to calculate out 20%, and then I just round up to the nearest dollar, or more if the service was really good.

How to calculate the tip:

  1. Take the dollar figure total, move the decimal point one position to the left
  2. Double this amount, rounding up

So for instance, if the bill comes to $53.71, move the decimal point over, giving you $5.37, then double rounding up giving you $11.  There’s your tip amount.  If the service was really good, I might tip $15.  I rarely under-tip, and only if the service involved intentionally making me miserable, which is thankfully rare.

People get nit-picky about tip amounts sometimes, aiming for 15% instead of 20%, etc…  My take is that the difference is usually just a few bucks, and those few bucks will matter a lot more to your server, who lives on tips, than they matter to you, who can afford to go out to eat.

Also, a good tip will make your server happy, and if you return and tip well consistently, you will reap some rewards of that.  But that’s not why you should tip.

For non-restaurant tipping I recommend a couple of singles as a minimum, and $5s and $20s if you want to get some cool returns.

Tipping a valet $2-3 is pretty standard.  Tipping $5 is nice, and they’ll likely be a little more careful with your doors, etc…  Tipping $20 will usually get your car parked out front, and you’ll often walk out to a warmed up running car waiting for you.

If you’re going to be using the concierge service at a hotel, I’d recommend tipping at least $20 the first time, even if it’s for something small like dinner recommendations.  Two reasons there, a hotel concierge, at least a good one, can be an invaluable asset when you’re in a new city.  They can get you reservations at a booked restaurant, point you to the best bar or club in the area, get you a great haircut, find you a replacement pair of your designer shoes which got ruined, etc…  So if they’re good they deserve an ample reward.  Secondly, if you tip well, sometimes you’ll get some extra perks.  For instance many nice hotels have private cars (like a BMW L series, Bentley, Rolls, etc…).  If you don’t tip you’ll probably never see the inside of one.  If you do you may find yourself sitting in luxury when you just asked for a cab.

If you’re on a date, don’t tell your date what you tipped.  That’s between you and the tip recipient.

A subtle tip is easy.  Have the bill(s) prepped, folded into 1/4th, in your pocket.  Reach into your pocket, cup the bill inside your hand, and reach out as if you’re going to shake (and sometimes you will), and slip them the bill.  Practice if you’re worried.

Life Skills

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I’ve added a post category today, called Life Skills.  I’ve been thinking lately that there are a ton of skills which are really useful in real life that aren’t taught in schools, and that many people don’t teach their kids.  I think I was pretty lucky in that regard, as I learned a ton of these from my parents while growing up, but I keep running into people who don’t know how do some things I take for granted.

So instead of trying to teach a class at a local high school, and getting fired for something I’m sure, I’m just going to start by posting a few things here.

The skills I’m talking about might fall into the “Home Ec.” category, but also more along the lines of Heinlein’s famous quote:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

With the modern world I think we’ve been able to slide without knowing a lot of essential skills.  “Why should I know how to change a tire? I have AAA.”  That’s great unless your cell phone is dead or missing, or you really must get going in less than 1-4 hours (making a flight, taking someone to the hospital, etc…).  Everyone who drives should know how to change their tire.  Everyone.  It’s an easy skill, and it could save your life.

If you haven’t, you should read The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne.  While not his best book in my opinion, still a great read.  Cyrus Smith is an engineer who knows how to get things done.  He can make fire, pottery, nitroglycerin, iron, electricity, a telegraph system, and a ship.  All using what’s available on the island.  While you may not know how to make nitroglycerin using what you find on an island, you will know how to make it when I’m done with the series of posts.

These skills are applicable for men and women of all ages (young children probably shouldn’t be making explosives unsupervised though… :) .

I hope folks find these useful.