All day today I’ve been trying to think of what to write about but there is really only one topic in my life right now – remodeling.  It’s likely that the house will be torn apart for weeks, maybe months.  Hopefully not years, but I’ve been afraid of that at times.

In the last week there has been some progress but I am nearing decision over load (actually think I crossed it once or twice).  When I started this project I thought it would be great to be able to sit down and start picking out new things for the house.  Okay, the first dozen choices were kind of fun but somewhere around one hundred, I started to lose enthusiasm. Now when the contractor asks, “Where do you want this?” a wave of terror overwhelms my brain and I have to fight the urge to just run away.

Where did the fun part go?

When they tore out the kitchen, one of the crew asked where are you going to cook.  I told him that I was going to get the camp stove out.  “Oh, it’ll be just like camping for you.”

Sure, except for the part where I don’t get a campfire and s’mores every night.

I will admit that some of the stuff is cool – even if overwhelming.  Things like LED lighting.  I remember the days when there where just two kinds of LEDs in electronics – small red and big red.  Now the choices are mind-boggling and I’ve been learning all about color temperature, lumens and angles of dispersion.  I thought I knew a lot about electronic and electrical systems, but wow, there’s a whole new world of stuff to learn.

I am on a bit of an LED lighting kick.  LED has a number of advantages, low power and long life are top of the list. Then add to that the ability to choose the color of the light and be able to shove a lot of light into a little package and you got this old technician excited.

The part of me that does decisions isn’t so thrilled.   I don’t do decisions well.  It’s a problem I’ve had all my life.  Look at a menu and I have no clue what to order.  I think restaurants should have just three choices – small, medium and large.

I’ve never completely understood the psychology of decision-making but I think it really gets down to the fear of choosing the wrong thing.  For example, say there are four kinds of ice cream, chocolate, mint, lemon and rocky road.  We’ll, I hate rocky rock that brings the list down to three.  Three good choices.  Chocolate is good but mint is great.  Lemon is a real favorite of mine, but if I pick that, I can’t have the chocolate because you’re only allowed one.

My usual response is to fret over the decision until the ice cream is all melted and the only thing left is stale cake.

Till next week,
Andrew