Showing posts with label Murphy's Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murphy's Law. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Never, never, never, never give up

After six days away, on Monday I returned to a hill of work. Not a mountain let alone an alp, but a daunting pile nonetheless. So much so that yesterday morning I had trouble getting out of bed to face it. But I did. All through yesterday I persevered – because I knew that if I didn’t, the hill wouldn’t get flatter. By evening, I’m pleased to report, it was almost gone. It’s amazing what you can achieve when, though not in the mood, you’re determinedly persistent [1].

That’s enough about me. But continuing on about persistence, I publicly pay tribute to darling Kate and Brendon. Last Thursday marked nine years since they moved to Daylesford – equipped with lots of dreams and not much knowledge. What they’ve achieved over the subsequent nine years is astounding. But don’t take my word for it – for I’m unashamedly biased – read what the Weekly Times says [2]. Despite my Farmdoc moniker, I’m not a real farmer. Because I earn my living from doctoring. But I know enough about farming to tell you, with conviction, that farming’s a Murphy’s Law enterprise if ever there was one. Self evidently persistence’s paying off for Daylesford Organics. Happy birthday to that ‘amazing little farm punching well above its weight’ [3]. Long may you prosper. I am so proud of you.

Monday, September 22, 2008

farmdoc's blog post number 155

Captain Edward A Murphy (1918-1990) was a US Air Force engineer. He was working on a project to determine how much sudden deceleration a person could stand in a crash, when one day he discovered a wrongly wired transducer. He cursed the technician responsible and said: ‘If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it’. The project manager, who kept a list of ‘laws’, added this one which he called Murphy’s Law. I was reminded of Murphy’s Law last Thursday when I was splitting some firewood. I knew there was a buried water pipe in the vicinity, but I didn’t know exactly where. Well now I know, because one of my downstrokes went right through the piece of wood and up shot a gusher. I quickly stanched the flow by turning off the header tank’s gate valve. Then after digging up the pipe I inspected the damage which I mended with a joiner. Our Mole Creek property is 78.16 hectares (193.14 acres), and I hit the jackpot. (Un)lucky me. Talking of stanching the flow, Murphy’s Law has done the opposite, i.e. spawned a multitude of other laws – similar but different. I wonder which one of these will test me next. And why couldn’t that infernal technician have wired the transducer properly? Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.