Estimating
Wow, it’s been almost a month since I last blogged. Time flies, I guess! I’ve been busy wrapping up my Spring semester
at Ohio State, getting back into some wedding planning, and getting our yard
cleaned up after a very rough winter. It
snowed a few Saturdays ago, but since then we’ve been pretty lucky and had some
great weekends (and we definitely earned them the hard way over the last 6
months!).
So, for this entry my inspiration comes from Anissa. We were talking one night after we both got
home from work and she was explaining that her students were learning the
metric system. They were applying it to
some estimating problems and we were talking about how some of them were
getting tripped up. It got me thinking
about what a useful skill estimating can be in our lives, and what a great
application it is of math skills. I
thought I’d share some estimating I’ve had to do in the past few months, and
talk about how hard it can be!
Yardwork: Anissa and I have been itching to get outside
and clean up our yard – weed the gardens, remove branches and other debris, and
mulch. We started trying to figure out
how much mulch we would need, and estimating came into play twice here. First, how many bags do we need for our
beds? We ended up deciding to get 30
bags. We haven’t finished mulching yet,
but 30 still seems like a good bet. But
it was hard trying to figure out how much you’d need. How high of layer of mulch do you add to each
bed? How much is in one bag, and how far
will it go? I hope we remember any
lessons learned for next Spring. We also
had to figure out if we could get 30 bags into my car. We figured it would be no problem. WRONG.
It was tricky, but we did manage to get them all in there, including
room for ourselves to buckle in.
HOWEVER, my car was sagging. I
was very happy we live so close to Lowe’s, because I probably should not have
driven with that much weight in my back seats and trunk. The lesson here? Order from the Boy Scouts at church and get
the free delivery!
Painting: Anissa and I have been painting rooms in our
house and have made a lot of good progress.
But, wow, it is some grueling work.
We have had to do 2 coats on every wall we’ve painted. We started by painting our bedroom first, and
this seemed tough at the time but after painting our kitchen, foyer, stairway,
and hallway, I am very excited for another easy, 4-simple-walls room next. We are hoping to have the entire downstairs
repainted before our wedding, and we’ve got the dining room, living room, and
family room left to go. So, where does
estimating fit into this picture? We had
very little context for how much paint to buy for each room. We read some guidelines about how many square
feet can be painted with one gallon, but it’s hard to estimate the square
footage of a space like a stairway or foyer with so many varying sizes and
shapes to the space. We have pretty much
just guessed, knowingly over-estimating because we definitely didn’t want to
run out mid-project. So far, so good!
Food: I can never get this right. I think subconsciously I have a fear of not
having enough food at a given meal to totally stuff myself like a pig, because
I consistently over-estimate.
Pizza? A large is probably too
much for 2 people, but a medium might be too little. Thus I order a large. Coke?
Better get the 40+ ouncer. Out to
dinner? Well, if we’re sharing an entrée
then clearly I need a salad and an appetizer on top of the free bread. Buying groceries? I’d hate to not have enough to pack for lunch
all week – better get 3 bags of chips!
See where I’m going with this?
Maybe I need to re-read this entry before every meal as a reminder of
how ridiculous I can be.
Time: Where I’m weak at food, I’m strong at time
management. Anissa can attest to this –
I have a very keen sense for how long it takes to get things done. Work.
School. Errands. Gym.
House chores. Painting. Yardwork.
I don’t know if this skill is something I just inherited from some
pretty organized parents and siblings, or if it’s something I’ve developed out
of necessity (call it a psychic obsessive-compulsive thing, or a lifestyle
requirement based on everything I try to manage).
What types of things do you find yourself estimating? Do you ever those “a-ha!” moments where you
realize something you learned in grade school is actually very useful?
