DarylToBeDifferent

We’ve wanted to switch our home heating system from natural gas to electric fork a few years now. Our furnace and A/C unit are 27 years old so it was only a matter of time before one quit (and usually at the worst possible time). We also wanted to try and get our home off of fossil fuels so we started looking at getting an electric heat pump installed. This would handle both our heating and cooling needs as well as remove the requirement for gas. But the challenge has been finding an HVAC contractor that would be willing to do it. We talked to three different HVAC companies and their response was always “Yeah they are great for warmer climates but not the okanagan or” “The other response was always “Why would you do that? Natural gas is cheaper”.

I knew that heat pumps (the cold climate versions) were popular in the East coast where it gets much colder than here in the Okanagan. So why shouldn’t they work here?

I looked into it some more this summer, and found a handful of homes in Western Canada that had switched to an electric cold-climate heat pump system and that they did indeed work. But that still didn’t solve our lack of a willing installer.

Thankfully I came across Coldstream Mechanical who had experience and knowledge with the Mitsubishi Hyperheat line of products that have a great reputation for operating in colder temperatures around the world.

They completed our install last week, setting up an indoor “head” on each floor to the single exterior unit. We’ve been using it for the last week down to -7C and it’s been working great. However, there still was the question “yeah but what happens when it gets down to -20C.” Temperatures rarely get to that in a given Okanagan winter. But ten days after our install, the forecast was calling for -18C. We were going to get our cold weather test whether we liked it or not!

The frigid temperatures arrived, and there was good news and bad news. First the bad news: It dropped to lower than forecast, down to -21C! But the good news is that the system performed great in those temperatures and kept the inside of our house at 20C. While we had anticipated it would be fine, it was nice to see that it did indeed keep up.

Working for a fully distributed company makes for some fun and unique ways to connect. One of my favorites is a 24-hour virtual relay that we do twice a year. It works as follows: We divide a 24 hour period (starting at 00:00UTC) into 1 hour blocks, and one or more runners sign up for each block. On the day of the relay, we pass the “virtual” baton across countries, time zones, and oceans by sharing our runs in Slack and on Strava.

It’s fascinating to see the variety: some choose a route way out in the country, some run in the bustling city, and some folks even pivot last-minute to a treadmill or stationary bike if their local weather is unfavorable that day. Its truly a way to embrace our similarities, differences, and uniqueness across this vast planet of ours.

“Money is not the only way to improve life. Instead of widening your margin of profit, widen your margin of leisure. Instead of optimizing for money, optimize for time. Instead of seeking efficiency, seek recovery.”

– James Clear

So the annual day of awareness has once again come and gone and we did our post thing and shared the hashtag and…… what do we do next? We’ve come a long way in talking about it as an important issue, and raising awareness of how many it impacts. But there’s still work to be done. The important work.

As someone who has been in a dark place in the past, here are three things you can do next to make a huge difference:

1) Normalize talking about your emotion and struggles (especially us dudes). Many view vulnerability as a weakness. But it’s actually a super power. Talking openly about your challenges and struggles shows a level of confidence and self-awareness that many don’t have. Most importantly it shows others that they aren’t alone in feeling the way they do.

2) Rather than relaying on our “open door”, actively reach out to friends, especially if you sense something. When I’ve been in a bad place, it’s been hard as F*** to reach out and admit the demons are winning. I know I should but I can’t or just don’t wanna. It’s been times when people have reached out the proverbial hand to me to lift me up that’s made all the difference. “Hey man, you’ve been pretty quiet on social lately, whats been on your mind lately?” To adapt the work place safety phrase: “If you sense something, say something.”

3) Ask better questions. Its easy for someone to blow off “how are things going?” With “fine”. But by combing the above steps, we can show our vulnerability and start a conversation: “This new business has really been a struggle lately, whats going on in your world?”

If you want more practical approaches on how to reach out as a person (on either side of the equation), headsupguys.org has lots of great resources.

Did I miss anything? What actions are you going to take this week to make a difference to your own or someone else’s mental health?

Both of these are important. Sometimes it’s easy to cast the academic approach as a waste of time. Wasting time looking at something that is already a fact. But in analyzing the decision process of an existing fact, we get better at future decisions when we don’t yet have all the answers.

There are some of us that are conformists, trying as best as we can to fit in and jumping on every trend. Then there are who are the rebels, who want nothing to do with whats considered “mainstream”

I’m one of the non-conformists. To an extreme.

The last thing I wanted to be was one of the “cool”
kids

In junior high and high school, I was a bit of an outlier. I wore sweat pants every day while all the other kids wore jeans. It’s not that I didn’t like jeans, but I simply didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. The other day I was describing my high school experience to a friend and I said “Its not like I was an outcast for lack of trying, it was that the last thing I wanted to be was one of the cool kids”

This has carried into my personality years later where when I’m doing activities, or choosing places to go, I pick the ones that are the least “popular”. And in many cases I take this to an extreme. For example I came up with a plan this summer to do a 350km bike trip that involved paddling in the middle of it by putting my bike on top of a packraft. Of course this was pretty complex and daunting for many reasons and it never really got done. I think maybe if I had aimed a bit lower, I would have done it in separate parts which is better than zero parts

This carries over to who I choose to associate with too. I find myself being much more particular with who spend time with. And while at a basic level, tis ins’t a bad thing, I might take it too far. For example if I have a running friend but they don’t share the same values as me on recycling or the environment, I might feel myself not wanting to hang out with them as much. Or if they aren’t as adventurous and want to turn around just as we reach the summit because they have to head to Home Depot later, I might find myself getting annoyed with them and less likely to want to hang out with them in the future.

So I’ve kind of found myself in this spot where I don’t have a huge group of people that I do adventures with. I think I’ve only recently discovered that it’s because I’m maybe overly critical of inconsequential things. And looking for this perfect adventure buddy with the same “weird and different” matching worldviews and value and traits as me.

People meeting these “exact specifications” are either rare or don’t exists and I think its affects me more than I previously admitted to. While I like my solo adventures, I enjoy sharing time outdoors with others that enjoy it just as much as I do, so I think there is a bit of a gap here. So maybe that isn’t an issue with me finding the “exact” right people, but perhaps being a little more open to people being different and unique in other ways.