It all started when I was hemming and hawing about whether I should try to fix the drive on my beloved’s lawn mower.
In a wave of self-disgust, I wondered whatever happened to that kid who swapped in a 4-barrel manifold and hopped up the carb on his Duster. The one who tracked down a bad power transistor in his stereo and fixed it. The one who knew exactly where to “thwack” an older computer to get it to come alive again.
That was all it took.
When the lawn mower turned out to be two bolts and a dislodged belt and about two and a half minutes’ work, I decided that I still wanted– that it was still necessary— to get my hands dirty once in a while. Maybe even scrape my knuckles. Just to keep my hand in.
Next day I limped my car– it almost didn’t start– up to the local auto parts store, selected, verified, and installed a new battery, right there in the parking lot. Rocket science? Heck no, but I’d still been considering paying someone to do it for me.
It’s good to know how to do stuff– but it’s even better to *know* that you know.