Setback

Well, this morning I can report a series of setbacks.  Not exactly good news, but I am taking it in stride.

The goal for Wendsday was to have the mechanicals mocked-up.  Unfortunately, while I was on track, I failed to get it done.  The chain kept coming off.  The temporary universal twisted itself out.  Then, the fly wheel broke. Then it broke again.  After about the fifth time, I decided I was after it the wrong way.  I could go on rebuilding the mock-ups or I could just solve the problem.  Or, more accurately, the problems.

So, the problem offered an opportunity and a lesson.  Mock-ups are about sketching ideas with function.  Whether they work is unimportant compared to what we learn from them.  In this case, the problems I encountered during the mock-up phase were not only telling me what was wrong with my mock-up, they were informing the design process.  Everything that went wrong can be fixed, and those changes will become the final design.  

It's hard to say if this is a big time saver.  On the one hand, I only lost a day in finding out what was wrong and what I would need.  On the other, it is possible that if I had attempted to build the whole thing out at its highest fidelity, I may or may not have gotten it right.  There is no way to tell since I can't go back and try it the other way.  However, there is the fact that this couldn't be solved with drawings.  Granted, I have done sketches along the way, but not to solve problems as much as much as crystalize the ideas and solutions along the way.  Drawing is important as well, but the mock-up is making it happen.

Anyway, I was hit by a feeling of anxiety today which I have previously only felt in school.  You know that feeling when you have procrastinated a bit only to realize that the project or test is the next day and you haven't gotten anywhere?  That's the feeling.  Ah, procrastination. It's like masturbation: feels good at first, but you're only screwing yourself.  Luckily for me there has been a lot of rain and the river is swollen, so there is no opportunity to spend time fishing and canoeing instead of working.  

Oh, and as insult to injury, I also had a comical moment of stupidity just before bed.  I left the barn to get a few extra logs for the stove.  Since we live in the country it's normally dark, but with dark skies swollen with rain clouds, it was really dark.  I know the yard pretty well, so I moved along through the dark until I struck my face on the light pole (recently unplugged for whatever reason).  Good way to end the night, but I did one better: a hearty laugh at the irony and a cup of sour mash by the fire.