Mark is fired up about Ram Ride and Drive. He’s ready for the fully-loaded Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel King Cab.
MyFixitUpLife Book Review: Shop Class As Soulcraft
May 30, 2012 By
Just based on the number of dog-eared pages in my copy Matthew B. Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, I like this book. You could make the case, love this book. No doubt, I’m impressed and grateful he wrote it. Written by a been-there/been-sworn-at-on-real-^%&*+%$ job sites electrician/motorcycle mechanic Crawford’s [...]
MyFixitUpLife Book Review: Born to Run
May 29, 2012 By
As awesome as the subtitle to Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run is—A hidden tribe, super athletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen—my favorite line happens somewhere near the end by a minor player: “You don’t stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.” The words are those [...]
(in)Site: Saturday 6 And Wind In Your Sails
May 22, 2012 By
I took a sailing lesson once and got more than I bargained for. It’s something that I have used as a guiding principle for my life. {Uh, Clement, sailing? FOCUS! Saturday 6…landscaping, gardening, TOOLS and equipment!!! Make it happen!} Yes, sailing. We’ll get back on land in a minute. A group of us rented a [...]
A Short History of Coffee
May 15, 2012 By
It’s sometimes easy to overlook the pedigree, or history, some simple things in our lives come with… Easy? Who am I kidding? It’s downright baseline. Who’s thinking history while dodging dodgy drivers on the way to work? But everything has a history and coffee—which I think actually makes up a measurable component of my blood [...]
MyFixitUpLife Book Review: The Power of Habit
May 11, 2012 By
Despite the title, this is not a self-helpy “rah-rah you can do it” kind of book. While there is decidedly empowering information from The Power of Habit, the longer subtitle may shed more light on what the book really uncovers: “Why we do what we do in life and business.” And if you don’t like [...]
(in)Site: Work Hard and Be Nice
May 10, 2012 By
So I’m on an out-of-command-center excursion on an eat-work mission and am typing this in a local diner. There’s a guy here (every diner has one and I hope I’m not him click-clacking on my keys) with his face buried in the paper, commenting vociferously about why Joe So-and-So is an idiot, which player in [...]
MyFixitUpLife Book Review: Unbroken
May 4, 2012 By
I’m not much for non-fiction war stories. While I can suspend my disbelief and GI-Joe-it for a while for fictional films, the actual reality of brutality and loss, even when the good guys win, generally makes me too sad. Yet at the same time, the core of many war stories is what’s best in each [...]
Old House, New Roof–Before and After Shock
March 5, 2012 By
So good news: Our old house/new roof installation gets installed as planned. We take a lame-o and withering 3-tab shingle roof and upgrade to a 50 year warranty Bellaforte Slate roof. The 130 year old house gets a roof consistent with the neighborhood and its Georgian pedigree. We also have premium underlayments from Grace, notably [...]
Hyde Multi-Tool at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
January 26, 2012 By
So here’s one from the “Couldn’t make it up if I tried” Department—and yet another reason why a tool pouch without a Hyde multi-tool in it is an invitation to work harder than necessary. While on set at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s Knoxville, TN project working with the show’s project management team I had to [...]
