Make sure to read the instructions

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

When I was younger, we used to have proficiency tests once a year to make sure the students of our school were on par with other students throughout the state and country.  I think they were called the Iowa Basic Tests.  I usually had no problem with the mathematics portion of the tests, but when it came to reading comprehension, I didn’t do nearly as well.  One of my problems was starting to do the tests before reading ALL the instructions.

And then, when I got done and the students started talking about some of the questions, I would realize that I possibly didn’t read the instructions well enough and did some of the answers wrong.

I never did learn my lesson from this as inevitably, the next time we would do the Iowa Basic Tests again, I’d start doing the questions before reading everything completely.

Well, that sense of urgency has carried over into my life and I still don’t take the time to read all the instructions before using something for the first time, putting something together, or buying something.

I don’t know how many times I’ll start assembling something only to realize that I probably should have read the instructions to make sure part B goes on part C before I work on part D.

I’m also not much of a gardener, but I do like to grow some flowers each year and I added some vegetables this spring as well.  I like marigolds the best, because of how easy they are to grow and their hardiness in the cold, and I also like zinnias, petunias and daisies.

My vegetables came up nicely as did my zinnias and other flowers, but my marigolds quickly grew past the one-foot height that I thought they would stop at, and they still didn’t have a blossom.  

Once they got to two-feet high and didn’t have any blossoms, I went back to look at my packet.  On the front of the packet were nice smaller-looking marigolds, but on the back of the packet it read “Cracker jack marigolds produce flowers 3-4 feet high.”  Well, 3-foot marigolds do not work in a flower pot, especially when you encounter the kind of winds we do on Lake Pelican.  Not only did the flowers not achieve their first bloom until early July, but by the time they did bloom they were too big for the flower pots and were falling all over the place, unless I put up some sort of fencing around the flower pot.

Now, every time we have a significant wind, the flowers are blown over and I either have to stake them straight, or I have to add a metal fencing around the outside of the flower pot to give them some stability.

I have a lot of the marigold seeds left for next year, but they will be thrown out.  In their place, I’ll buy another packet of marigolds, but this time, I’ll make sure to read the packet instructions.

And that’s also some good advice for life; make sure to read all the instructions (and know what you’re doing) before beginning anything.