Topic: Dailies

Experience As Teacher

by

Leo Crocker Rogers

Today, being Memorial Day, I had time to appreciate what many men and women of many countries could not – work in my garage. Of the many jobs that were accomplished, I removed the lead acid battery from my 1400 Intruder Motorcycle. This task is difficult. Taking off the power cables requires leveraging the battery in a semi-removed position while breaking lose the tie down bolts. Taking off the ground lead first so that when I strike the frame with the box end wrench that just ekks to fit, there is no battery explosion or sparks that blind me (may eyes are an inch from the wrench), I remove the cable. Then on the other side of the bike, I remove the hot cable. It is much more difficult to loosen. It takes time and jockeying of the battery position. With both cables loose, I drop the trap door and carefully allow the battery to lower itself. Now the reason I am doing this is that three days ago when starting the Intruder, it cranked a bit longer than it should have and at one point in the crank, the head lamp when dim. This meant that the battery was low on water or was shorting. Well in Arizona at 100 degree days, likely it is low on water. While the top of the battery is sealed, there are vents on each of the six cells so water vapors do escape. Sure enough, it was low on water. My son visits near June, and every year in June and sometimes December, I need to perform this water refill. I did. I also cleaned the battery, wire brushed the paint that comes off from the fumes from the vent line, and repainted the needed areas. Then came the reassembly which the book says, "Reverse the take down procedure." was performed. Let me tell you, take down is 15 minutes but "reverse" is near 30 minutes. Going up always seems to take longer than going down.

My garage floor is carpeted thanks to Chuck Kesting, a friend that has passed. So, after I competed the job, cleaned the tools, and put them away, I lay beside the Intruder and thought. I wish my son could be a part of this. Why did I wish that? Because some things you learn not from books and not even from word of mouth, but just by doing. Now, the battery removal and reinstall is not totally one of those experiences, because knowing to take off the ground cable first may not be intuitive, nor getting to the impossible power cable bolts by semi-dropping the battery through the trap door, or even for that matter, knowing that the problem is likely low water and not a shorted battery (There are people that buy batteries once a year.), but getting that puppy in and out is a watch, listen, and do learning process.

So I wished, my son, Ryan were here.

Experience is the slowest way to learn, but there are times.

Learning math or physics through experience is a no-go. You will not get far, and your progress will be sloooow. How long will it take to discover the integral of (1/X) dX is log X or that V = sqrt (2)(a)(d). Could be a month, but more than likely a couple of years.

On the other hand, try learning to ride a bicycle without experience.

In business matters, the read the book, watch others, and think about it route is so so so much smarter than getting on the bike and learning to ride. Too, when one falls, it is more than a bruised knee that hurts.

This is one: In laying brick, read the book and then get with a brick layer. There is much the book does tell you but you may not understand until you do it and even then someone may need to coach you.

Here is the challenge of challenges of learning. Ready. Know what it is? Guess. It has a failure rate that is worse than the batting average of a professional baseball hurler. Get married and stay married. No book for that. No one else’s experience will do. Want to bite the largest bullet? Get married and stay such.