OMG!

I'm turning into my dad! It seems to be apparent, and I don't like it one bit. Although there are many aspects to being my dad, I'm only talking about one particular trait that he possesses:

Fixing things that aren't broken.

Whenever he "fixes" things around the house or on a vehicle, he causes more problems than he started with. There are many reasons for it I suppose, and among them:

• Not troubleshooting things correctly to begin with (me)
• Not doing investigation before jumping in with both feet (me)
• Lack of patience (me)

I suppose that I could come up with all sorts of things like that given enough time, but I don't have the patience for it. It suffices to say I've recently caused an awful lot of extra work/expense over things that never should have been "repaired" to begin with.

Let me see if I can come up with a few things to illustrate my point...

• This last summer I totally gutted my car to fix what I thought was a leaky heater core. Was it leaking? I thought so, but maybe it wasn't. Did it fix the water leak? Fuck no it didn't, and I'm still fucking around with it. And that's after I spent $60 on a new heater core too. As of this very moment, I have a wet floor, the blower motor is out, and the whole top of the dash is still off of it. Add to that the fact that I've had two people out to work to "fix" what I thought must be a leaky windshield. Maybe it isn't? Who the fuck knows--Certainly not me because I'm "my dad" now.
• I have not been able to figure out why my truck only starts some of the time. Instead of really troubleshooting it methodically, I've just been doing the "remove and replace" method. Is it fixed yet? Fuck no... I'm "my dad" so I obviously can't fix it. So far I have bought a new distributor cap, rotor, ignition module (it goes under the distributor cap), spark plugs, and ignition switch. When I removed the ignition switch, I couldn't get the new one back on. I stupidly (underline that) couldn't get the new one on, and little by little ended up delving deeper and deeper into it. Right now the whole steering column is out of the truck and on the bench in my garage, half torn apart. Will I get it back together? Who the fuck knows. All I know is, I bought a new ignition switch (fortunately fairly cheap), and a specialty tool for steering wheel disassembly that I didn't need. Why didn't I need it? Simple--I'm my dad and I tried to put the fucking switch in wrong. Instead of really investigating the problem, I assumed that a linkage had slipped when I took it apart, causing it to not align correctly to allow for reassembly. Wrong. There are a lot of parts in a GM tilt-wheel steering column. Key switch, turn signal switch, dimmer, ball bearings (I found 12 out of 14), tilt wheel linkages... What a mess. And all I had to do was open my fucking eyes...
• The famed Harley shocks fiasco. I spent over $200 on shocks that have caused me nothing but trouble. Did they actually help the ride? Fuck no. What should I have done? Put some new tires on it. Instead of starting with the right things first, I lit the bottom of the fucking candle. Why? Duh... Obviously I'm "my dad."
• Yesterday I went up to Federal Way to buy some more memory for my laptop. I took the old chips out and looked at them, noting their speed. I "assumed" that I should buy the same speed (pc2100 @266mhz for you geeks following this) to play it safe and make sure they would work, even though all the newer RAM is faster speed than that. I got home and plugged em in. Did they work? Fuck no. I could have easily taken my laptop with me and installed them on the spot, but nooooo.... I can't do anything right. Now I have to go back up there and get my $100 back (if I'm lucky). Just call me "my dad."
  

I could go on and on. It's plainly a case of me losing my ability to fix things, and because it has happened little by little, it's taken me a while to realize it. I'm not happy about this one bit. I can't see well, I can't hear well, my patience has been sliding for some time, and now this. I find it extremely frustrating. I don't make enough money for me to keep pissing it away "fixing" shit that was never broken to begin with.

Now I'm going to have to go into my Real Me page and change some shit. The fact that I "can fix almost anything" is now history, and who know what else I'll find...