Lio by Mark Tatulli for July 09, 2011

The best laid plans…

FAIL!

Face plant. Although, considering Lio, you’d think that would involve a real plant. Maybe next time.

Dad’s thinking….MMmm, some Stilton cheese and grapes…

Cathedral ceiling it is (didn’t look that way when we saw Dad’s house from outside, though). Rarely have I seen one of Lio’s projects end up such a monumental flop.

Oh, it’s the little things that stump Lio.

Lio will build a bonfire from those stilts & rise from the ashes…

Sometimes you get the stilts, sometimes the stilts get you.

Karma, from yesterday…

Amen, willie. ;-)

We engineers have to be tough for when our dreams get smacked by reality…

Failure is part of any scientific process

“i’m ok! I meant to do it,” he said somewhat stiltedly.

Why did he need plans for these stilts? They are two planks of wood with a piece for the feet!

Oh wow, I think lots of we adventurous kids did something like that. My best stilts were a pair of 12 foot 2×4′s with the wood wedge and strips of garden hose to act as a stirrup. Took a tall ladder to start from. Was lots of fun – except for falling “al la” Lio. It was actually kind of easy to get around.

So remember, kids, always tape a bicycle horn to your face so it’ll sound funny when you fall down.

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” (W.C. Fields)

Thank goodness Cybil didn’t get his paws on that.

Look at his hands. Lio rode it down. Did not bail. Way to stick with it.

In engineering, we learn a whole_lot_more from failures than from successes.Build one, break it, build the next one having learned lessons from that.NASA and many publicly-visible projects have forgotten that.