Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Where is that moth when you need him?

Issues with intermittency!

Here is the deal: There are a lot of problems that are intermittent and while this might sound okay (because theoretically you get a break), they can actually be more frustrating than consistent problems.

At least something consistently bothersome is predictable. I can count on the annoyance and plan around it. But, think about snafus that strike randomly; these are the one that truly drive people (okay, me) nuts.

Here are two examples: First, when my car does something odd, but because it happens sometimes but not all the time, I can’t replicate it for the mechanic. Because, of course it never happens when I need it to (for demonstration purposes).

This is a frustrating situation, and worse, it can make me look like an idiot when I describe symptoms to a mechanic and they look at me like the problem might be more in my head than in my car.

2nd example: When I called the exterminators who service our yard about having moths inside the house they told me they needed to determine what kind of moth we are dealing with before they can spray anything. "Just get us one sample,” said Urbano. But, those moths that had formerly been (what seemed like) everywhere were suddenly nowhere to be found.

So, that is one of life's pet peeves for me; things hard to solve or fix because they happen intermittently. So glad I got that off my chest!