Damn Achilles AND his tortoise

[Dubya]

Ever been engaged in a task, only to discover that for every part of the task you try to complete, two or more things become apparent that have to be done first?

So I was wrestling with a stairway today. Like the rest of the house, its old and run-down. Half rotten. My original plan was to replace two big posts that help hold it up. It looked like they were only sitting on the ground, not cemented
in as they should have been, which would be par for the course with this place.

Sadly, frustratingly, this was not the case. They had been cemented in, and then rotted away at ground level. I didn't find this out until I was a foot deep in the ground and my shovel snapped.

Then the various bits of superstructure began falling apart as I tried to take them off so I could get to  the posts. The[[/ bits that didn't have a ridiculous number of nails in them, anyway. Then, on closer inspection, the landing at the top turned out to be a sort of wooden cat's cradle of supports underneath. All of which had to be detached from the posts to get the posts out.

But I don't tell you all this just to vent. No.

I actually made a couple of observations.

First, that simple observation of a problem isn't enough. Often - especially today - there are secondary, tertiary, hell, whole layers of problems beneath the obvious one(s).

Second, that Achilles can not only beat the tortoise, but then proceed to lay the smack down on Xeno by crossing all of the intermediate space at once. In the case of this project, I could have saved a great deal of time and energy by taking my Big Ass Sledgehammer^TM and knocking the thing down and rebuilding it completely from scratch.

[Doktor Howl]

First, that simple observation of a problem isn't enough. Often - especially today - there are secondary, tertiary, hell, whole layers of problems beneath the obvious one(s).

Yep.  Again, I work in a chemical plant (when I'm not on the road), and NOTHING is as easy as it seems.  The fuckup fairy is devious and clever.

Second, that Achilles can not only beat the tortoise, but then proceed to lay the smack down on Xeno by crossing all of the intermediate space at once. In the case of this project, I could have saved a great deal of time and energy by taking my Big Ass Sledgehammer^TM and knocking the thing down and rebuilding it completely from scratch.

"Xeno was a bag of shit."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

[Dubya]

"Xeno was a bag of shit."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

He took my job!

Cheated at cards, too.

He was lousy in bed.

Ah, thanks, I needed that.

[Doktor Howl]

"Xeno was a bag of shit."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

He took my job!

Cheated at cards, too.

He was lousy in bed.

Ah, thanks, I needed that.

You're gonna go far here, kid. 

It's nice to have some new blood that isn't trying too hard to be zany.  Not being sarcastic.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Seconded.

I live in a place that sounds an awful lot like what you're working on there. We can never seem to find a stud in any of the interior walls, and the kitchen has a two inch deep dip in the floor by the door.

[Dubya]

 

Might want to take a look at that. It would suck to be heading to the kitchen for coffee and then be suddenly wondering why you're in the basrment and who put all this rotten wood down here, anyway.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

It's an apartment, one of those old crumbly New England multi-family deals. Someday we will have money and escape this place.

[Dubya]

Yeesh, New England. In that case:

Might want to take a look at that. It would suck to be heading to the kitchen for coffee and then be suddenly wondering why you're in the basrment and who put all this rotten wood eldritch horror down here, anyway.

[LMNO]

Joining in the "I think I like you" bandwagon.