Carburetors and Keyboards
I had a 1975 Dodge Colt for a long time. When it broke down, I fixed it. I changed the wheel bearings, replaced the clutch, found a head at a junk yard and replaced the old one that melted when the head gasket blew out, and rebuild the carburetor. I replaced the timing belt, rebuilt the brakes, and a bunch of other stuff. Back in those days, the average person could work on a car. You could buy a shop manual and a cheap set of tools and do things. Remember, back in those days, the personal computer had not been invented. Well, it had not reached the marketplace, any way. So, what did young men do with their free time? Yeah, that, but they worked on cars. It was the very end of the era, really, because cars were getting really complicated. In those days, not much could really go wrong with a car. Carburetor, cam shaft, valves, spark plugs, distributor, alternator, water pump, radiator. Now, I look under the hood and don't recognize a thing.
Then computers happened. I remember one day I was playing around with a '486 compatible computer - replacing the timing chip as I recall to increase the clock speed - and a friend told me that computers were going to replace cars as the thing that young men played around with. It used to be that guys would save up their money to buy a new carburetor. Now, they'll save up their money to by a new hard drive. Well, today, they save up their money to buy a new video card.
Mary's nephew and his significant other visited the other day on their way from New York to Arizona. They're great and it was a treat to have them visit. Well, they left here and went into town to see what's what. Then, they called all broken down in a not so great part of town. Mary and I drove down to help get things squared away so the tow truck could haul away the car and all of their worldly possessions would not get stolen or lost. There was a puddle of oil under the car and a perplexed look on Adam's face. Have you recently had an oil change, I asked and the answer was yes. Sounds like the guy didn't tighten the oil plug and it fell out. Sure enough, I crawl under the car and there is a big hole in the oil pan where the plug should be. Auto Zone and $15 later and the car was back in working order.
So, things have changed. Anyway, I've been wrestling with this mid-life thing and feeling old-ish. Young is good, new is better, old is bad - that kind of stuff. It's hard keeping up with all the new stuff, although I do all right on computers and things like that. And, I'm embracing really old stuff, like black powder guns - that makes me the new thing. Well, an old guy like me knows what a bad oil change looks like and what to do about it. So, I liked that.
Nice thing about getting old is that it doesn't take that much to make us happy any more. How 'bout that.
Then computers happened. I remember one day I was playing around with a '486 compatible computer - replacing the timing chip as I recall to increase the clock speed - and a friend told me that computers were going to replace cars as the thing that young men played around with. It used to be that guys would save up their money to buy a new carburetor. Now, they'll save up their money to by a new hard drive. Well, today, they save up their money to buy a new video card.
Mary's nephew and his significant other visited the other day on their way from New York to Arizona. They're great and it was a treat to have them visit. Well, they left here and went into town to see what's what. Then, they called all broken down in a not so great part of town. Mary and I drove down to help get things squared away so the tow truck could haul away the car and all of their worldly possessions would not get stolen or lost. There was a puddle of oil under the car and a perplexed look on Adam's face. Have you recently had an oil change, I asked and the answer was yes. Sounds like the guy didn't tighten the oil plug and it fell out. Sure enough, I crawl under the car and there is a big hole in the oil pan where the plug should be. Auto Zone and $15 later and the car was back in working order.
So, things have changed. Anyway, I've been wrestling with this mid-life thing and feeling old-ish. Young is good, new is better, old is bad - that kind of stuff. It's hard keeping up with all the new stuff, although I do all right on computers and things like that. And, I'm embracing really old stuff, like black powder guns - that makes me the new thing. Well, an old guy like me knows what a bad oil change looks like and what to do about it. So, I liked that.
Nice thing about getting old is that it doesn't take that much to make us happy any more. How 'bout that.