Tools

Here are my deep thoughts for the week!

I think that we are born with certain innate tools. I think this is different than talents or skills.

I'll use myself as an example. And Rick of course!

I was born with an internal clock (set to the right time!). Here is why I think this.

I always know what time it is, within about 15 minutes. Time never gets away from me (like some people say happens to them when they are late.) I am rarely late - usually I am annoyingly early. I can estimate how long something will take me to do and I am usually right.

I know that this is innate because Rick doesn't have it. He has learned a lot of habits from me, so he is not usually late nowadays, but it's not in his blood. He is frequently shocked at what time it is and he is bad at estimating how long something will take. We joke about it - he'll say, "It'll just take a minute." and I'll say, "Great - see you in a few hours!"

On the flip side, however, he has an innate compass. He knows where we are, which direction is out and when to turn. I can look at the sun and, since I always know what time it is, can tell where north is but that doesn't mean I can get anywhere. We live next to a huge neighborhood with winding streets. It is faster to get to the east side of town if we cut through that neighborhood. Rick has been taking that shortcut several times a week for 3 years but I still can't find my way through it. I have a hard time figuring out interstates - I-26 near my house runs north and south but is labelled east and west and I can't remember which direction I need to take to go one exit north of where I am. And the corn-field maze. Don't get me started. Talk about panic attack!

In addition to a clock, I have an internal calculator. Don't take this to mean I'm good at math. I can honestly say I am terrible at math - I don't know calculus from geometry. But I can do math in my head and usually pretty quick. This annoys people too. I think it is a challenge. But this tool goes defunct if I don't have enough sleep.

Rick has an internal tape measure. I'm at a little disadvantage here because I learned metric growing up and now I have to use the other. But I still don't think I have the measurement tool.

Rick can usually know what size blinds we need for the window we didn't measure before going to Lowe's. I would be estimating between 45 and 70 inches! He gets a little closer. I will, however, know that if it costs $29.99 and we have a 15% off coupon, we'll only pay about $158 for it (after he buys a new drill to install it) and it will take approximately 3 months to do the job (after we put it off in favor of anything else)! We are quite a team!

That's all I got!