Perhaps you’ve read some things I’ve written about my wife, Cheryl. Amazing woman. But, forgive me, she’s a little bit challenged when it comes to estimating.
We are making progress. I wonder if some of my amazing insights (wink) might help you?
So, we’re driving along, and one of the two or three GPS systems that we have going at the time (gawd! “Mine says turn left,” “Well mine says turn right”) says, “Turn right in 400 yards.” Cheryl – who, remember, has TONS of skills — says, “Turn there?” No, dammit. Do you think that is 400 yards from us? Here, let me help you. A football field is 100 yards. How many football fields is that from us? “Uh, about a half?” Exactly!
To Cheryl’s credit, she’s getting it. She loves the “football fields” metric! When the GPS voice says, “in a mile,” I tell her, “The fastest human runner ever ran a mile in about four minutes. Would it take someone four minutes to run to that street?” “No.” Ok then.
Some goose on the Weather Channel said that Hurricane Laura dumped as much rain on the Gulf coast that would fill 49,000 Empire State Buildings. Are you kidding me? That helps me not one bit!
How about time? “I’ll be there in five minutes.” How far away are you? “Oh, 10 miles.” Are you gonna be averaging 120 mph for the next five minutes? Unlikely.
When I ask Cheryl, “OK, how long is that putt?,” she tends not to know. But when I say, “OK, I am about six feet tall. If I laid down on the green, and I put my feet at the ball and my head up toward the hole, and then moved up another body length, and then moved up another body length . . . ?” “Oh, so that’s like a 20-foot putt?” You got it, baby!
So here’s one for you, she says. “Do you estimate that you are going to stay married to me another year, you over-officious poop?” Good point. Whatever you say, dear!
Photo by Martin Reisch on Unsplash
