Learned that one the hard way years ago hanging pegboard in my garage. Put it flat against the wall and every time I pulled a wrench off the hook, the whole thing would pop loose. Ended up ripping it all down and using 1x2 furring strips instead, which worked fine but took forever to level. That plywood spacer trick sounds smarter than my approach, especially for getting some air behind it so moisture doesn't build up.

Have you considered doing a value-add by making herb blends? I took my extra oregano, basil, and thyme and mixed them into an Italian seasoning blend. Sold them in little 4oz mason jars for $6 each at the Middlebury winter market. People loved not having to buy three separate bottles at the store. Plus the markup on blends is way higher than single herbs since you're combining stuff that's already paid for. Made $90 in one Saturday just from those blends.

Did you catch that incident at a different Dow plant in Texas a couple years back where a crew blew a main steam line because a supervisor told them to skip the warm-up cycle? I read about it in an industry safety bulletin, it's a pretty well known case. The foreman got cited for violating procedure just as much as the guys on the floor, but only the workers got fired. It's wild how these shortcuts get pushed from the top but the blame always rolls downhill.

That line about "we always want the flashy solution instead of checking the simple stuff first" really hit me. It's the same thing with people buying those expensive countertop air fryers thinking it'll make them cook healthy every night, but they still just order takeout because the simple issue is they don't have time or energy to prep food. I've caught myself buying a $60 specialized cleaner for my coffee maker when the real problem was just that I needed to change the water filter, which costs like eight bucks. It's like our brains are wired to skip the boring fix and go straight for the gadget that promises a big change.

Man, that's a solid point. I've seen the same thing with guys I know who tried fast-track certs online and ended up circling back to local classes. There's something about having a real person see you mess up that just sticks better, you know?