Mechanical Genius

My wife last week asked me to fix the door to the dryer this past weekend. The catch in the door that grabs the post has broken, and the two spring loaded cables that hold the door flat when it's open had also broken. Well, let me just preface all of this by telling you all how miserably mechanically un-inclined I am. It's bad... We'll leave it at that. Well, I tore into it Sunday before the Pocono race (won by Denny Hamlin, the awesome young man I chose to be my new fave since Rusty retired last season) in hopes of having it fixed. Well, I got far enough into it to learn that I would need parts. So, Monday, I got the cables and brought them home. In the process of installing those (that wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped, it required disassembling the top/front of the dryer to get at the guts....) I realized that I still didn't ahve that latch part I needed in the first place. Man, let me tell you how warm it can get for an overweight adult male in our cramped laundry room!! Anyhow, Ian and I run ot the hardware in hopes of finding this part as it seems to be a generic sort of thingee. No luck, bt the guys says, why don't you just run across the street to that appliance dealer/repair guy (DUH Scott, helloooooo) and get it there. I gave him some feeble excuse about wanting to do so, but thinking they were already closed (it was 7:30 PM after all...) I had not gone in there. So, I head over there with Ian (who is having a ball, he loves the hardware store, and everything is an adventure to him). realizing I had been in there before for some gadget, it dawned on me, that this older gal at the counter is the very same older gal who bailed my ass out on some other fix it up project. And sure enough, as I begin to describe the part that broke, Pat puts her finger to her lips, smiles at my sweaty goofy looking sad excuse for a heandy man, and comes back with the part I need. I offer to kiss this sweet gal, which she shyly passes and rings me up, I am outta there!

The best part of all this thing is that I had no manual, no instructions, just a cryptic drawing from the first appliance guy I saw Monday who sold me the cables I didnt even know I needed. He had explained ot me what to do, I just nodded as if I understood and smiled knowingly, took my cables and left. Well, I have decided that I actually like fixing things now, because I find some bizarre satisfaction in dismantling something, finding the trouble, getting the parts and re-assembling it, only to find that it works like new, I haven't hurt myself, my family, the dog the appliance or our home and I haven't even said any bad words (and that's a HUGE accomplishment there, my wife cringes every time she asks me to fix something.) Even better than all that, I didn't make a big deal at the completion of my project, I merely told her it was fixed, good as new and took Ian for a bike ride around town.

AA is to blame for all of this, well and HP too of course! It doesn't take much to excite me anymore. I got a lot of joy out of fixing the dryer last nite, a lot!! Pretty scary... he he I am such a goofball! I like that about me! I can turn the mundane into the high point of my day, simply with a good attitude... Ok, there's HP doing for me what I cannot do for myself!

peace