Mistakes

Mistakes... I've made a few...

Mistakes are often bad, and sometimes they are life-threatening or career-ending. I'm not talking about catastrophic types of mistakes. 

Sometimes mistakes are just annoying and pretty much harmless. Sometimes simple mistakes can cascade into a series of mistakes, increasing the annoyance and interfering with progress. For example, yesterday, while changing the blade in my table saw...

• Mistake #1: Not keeping the base of the table saw clean of sawdust. 
• Mistake #2: Dropping the retaining washer into the sawdust.
• Mistake #3: Trying to use a magnet to retrieve the washer.
• Mistake #4: Setting the magnet on top of the cast iron saw.

So, to set things right, I had to figure out how to get the magnet off the table (success involved a 4x4 and a 5-lb sledge hammer), find the washer, install the blade (without repeating Mistake #2!), and clean out the base of the table saw.

I got it all done but the series of mistakes took up an inordinate amount of time. Catastrophic? No. Annoying? Yes. Interfering with the project at hand? Yes. 

Sometimes, though, you get to laugh at yourself - and that's a good thing.