Another color

 

 

 

 

Judy’s hair working its way from brown to gray.

 

From a long time back

 

 

Two pictures.  The same shot, taken at different times, of the same sunset at St. Vrain State Park.

 

 

On this day in 2006.

 

Automated systems

 

 

Stop by a fast-food shop and you’ll probably find a kiosk screen where you can put in your order.  We find them a bit of a pain to use, probably because we don’t use them very often, but if there is a long line at the counter and no line at the kiosk, then it makes sense for us.  For the store, it’s a way to move the ordering process from a paid employee to the customer, saving the store money, unless of course purchase and maintenance of the kiosk system costs them more than what they’re paying the person at the counter taking orders.  I have read that the main reason stores like these ordering kiosks is because they never forget to ask if you’d like to upsize that or order something else to go with it.  Upselling.  That triggers more purchases, a higher average sale, in the same amount of time, so a win for them.

 

I just recently encountered this same thing with my most recent visit to a car repair shop.  The last several times we’ve had a car in for an oil change, or something else simple, they automatically do an entire vehicle inspection then text you a message listing everything they found that you should do to your car to make it just right, complete with a handy check box for each item that you can approve right there on your phone.  Upselling.  We had an oil leak in our little Mazda 3, so we sent it to the shop.  The inspection text message we got back was alarming.  When I talked with the service manager I pointed out that the tech had just listed $8,500 worth of work for a car I could probably sell for $8,000.  Did that make any sense?  After starting to explain, then stopping, starting again, stopping, he acknowledged that maybe the tech got a little carried away.  I want my car back in good running shape and no serious safety issues.  He gave me a price for fixing the oil leak and said I’ll be fine with that.

 

Automated upselling.  A higher average sale with no extra effort.  It’s just a matter of marking things down on a computer screen, and you don’t even have to look the customer in the eye while you’re doing it.  (Unless the customer protests, then you can always backtrack and blame it on someone else.)  I see this practice migrating from fast food to auto repairs so far.  It is probably finding its way to other venues as well and is likely already happening a lot more than I realize yet.

 

 

Along the way

 

 

Back in Wyoming, there was an elk.

 

He refused to look our way and pose for us, but still, A heck of an elk.

 

 

I’ve been thinking

 

 

I’ll try my 12-second toothbrush theory out on my dentist to see what he thinks about it.  I’ve been meaning to abuse him anyway.  When we first got here to the Rio Grande Valley, I got my teeth cleaned in Mexico to see what that was like.  A lot of people get their dental work done south of the border for a fraction of the cost of doing it on this side.  I would describe the experience in Mexico as more like waterboarding than dentistry.  As part of the package deal though, $25, I also got a full checkup included, and they found five cavities.  I declined any more work and returned to my regular dentist without saying anything about that experiment.  I’m not so sure this stateside dentist is all that good though.  All these years later, he still hasn’t detected those five cavities.

 

 

Big Difference!

 

 

Crimson King.  Autumn Blaze.

 

I identified Becky’s tree as a Crimson King Maple.  It’s not.  Crimson King is purple in the summer and yellow in the fall.

 

  Becky’s tree is an Autumn Blaze Maple.  Green in the summer, red in the fall.

 

Big difference.

 

I had a question about leverage and mechanical advantage

 

 

Who do I turn to with such a question?  McKee.  He’s a design engineer so we know he’s well versed.  He’s also a sculptor, so we know whatever solution he proposes is going to be elegant.  This is the guy who has a motto emblazoned over an elaborate oak and stained-glass hobbit door on his house that reads: “Never make anything simple and efficient if a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful.”

 

Our problem had to do with the couch/bed in the van.  There is a certain lack of logic to how it functions.  It’s primarily a jackknife couch, with an additional stationary piece on one end.  To convert from a couch to a bed is easy.  Lift up in the front edge of the couch seat and the parts (couch seat and couch back) separate and lay down flat for a bed.  To reconstitute the couch, however, is not quite so easy.  With the whole thing laid out flat, the leverage is gone.  There is not enough advantage to just lift the front of the couch seat and have everything pop back into place.  It takes more power than I possess.  The combined effort of Judy and me together, lifting from the front, can get it done, but that didn’t feel sustainable as a long-term solution.

 

I thought about this for weeks and came up with a couple solutions myself that should have helped, but they didn’t.  So, I turned to McKee.  “Leverage and mechanical advantage” he said.  “I can deal with that.”  We drove to his house.  I demonstrated the difficulty.  I got the couch part-way up and left it in that position so he could examine the mechanism.  He took a long look from every angle.  He muttered.  He disappeared to his garage and came back out with an improvised tool.  He directed me to the leverage point on the frame.  “Stick this in there and lift up here.”  I did.  The front of the bed lifted right up, and the rest was easy.  Exactly the power assist we needed.  And here it is, the elegant solution.

 

A four-foot long 2x4 board.  (Sanded and rounded so we won’t get splinters.)  Elegant in its simplicity.  Stows on the floor slid-in next to the bed.

 

The McKees.  Such good friends for so many years (50).