Life musings
Aug. 22nd, 2008 21:08![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillSomething that struck me: I'm becoming a professional. Yikes.
It came to me a few weeks ago when we were in the South Bay, and Brian asked for my opinion on some trees he was hoping to move; I told him which ones would work, and which wouldn't, and exactly why. After discussing sun exposure, I was going out through the front yard (the gardenia was suffering from high pH soil) and I realized that what I had just done was to dispense my professional opinion. It felt... odd.
It came back this afternoon when I was working over Greg's bike for the Burn -- it had a slow leak in both tires, and I had already changed the tube in the back. The front wheel needed a new rim liner, so I cut one from an old leaky tube and put it in (never done it before, but it's not a hard thing to grasp) and put the whole thing back together. I had to put the chain back on the gears (it had slipped), rode it a little to settle the chain in the back (it needs to be under load to do that), checked the bad brakes (ancient pads and some maladjustment) and generally looked it over. I pronounced that it was pretty much ready to go, given new pads and a little lube... then I felt weird when I realized I was the resident expert. There's a lot about bikes I don't know, but I've hit that point where I know enough that I can look really knowledgeable to the average person, and I can do the basic maintenance -- and check for larger problems -- easily. About where I am in linux, actually. :)
I know enough about some things that I can pronounce my conclusions with some authority. It's kind of heady, and kind of intimidating. It's also a nice change, after going through so much of my life having to rely on guesswork. My god, I actually know something! How's that for a birthday revelation?
It came to me a few weeks ago when we were in the South Bay, and Brian asked for my opinion on some trees he was hoping to move; I told him which ones would work, and which wouldn't, and exactly why. After discussing sun exposure, I was going out through the front yard (the gardenia was suffering from high pH soil) and I realized that what I had just done was to dispense my professional opinion. It felt... odd.
It came back this afternoon when I was working over Greg's bike for the Burn -- it had a slow leak in both tires, and I had already changed the tube in the back. The front wheel needed a new rim liner, so I cut one from an old leaky tube and put it in (never done it before, but it's not a hard thing to grasp) and put the whole thing back together. I had to put the chain back on the gears (it had slipped), rode it a little to settle the chain in the back (it needs to be under load to do that), checked the bad brakes (ancient pads and some maladjustment) and generally looked it over. I pronounced that it was pretty much ready to go, given new pads and a little lube... then I felt weird when I realized I was the resident expert. There's a lot about bikes I don't know, but I've hit that point where I know enough that I can look really knowledgeable to the average person, and I can do the basic maintenance -- and check for larger problems -- easily. About where I am in linux, actually. :)
I know enough about some things that I can pronounce my conclusions with some authority. It's kind of heady, and kind of intimidating. It's also a nice change, after going through so much of my life having to rely on guesswork. My god, I actually know something! How's that for a birthday revelation?
