scofflaw

Details huh? What can I say, I wasn’t born with money falling out of my a$$ hole, but then again, if I was, and had everything handed to me, I probably wouldn’t be filling out a profile form for this web community.

I watched my dad work on his own grocery getters growing up, but it was never an enjoyable experience for him. I always wanted to help, but it was years before I was even able to master a flashlight-holding technique that would keep the profanity at a minimum.

I was always interested and curious in anything mechanical: lawn mowers, mopeds, three-wheelers, go-carts, etc. Given my financial status, however, I never bought anything new. Most projects, by the time I would get them home, were broken hopelessly beyond repair and became monuments in the backyard, frozen in an ever-permanent state of disassembly.

There were those rare occasions when something I tried to fix actually worked, and what a glorious time that was. Suddenly, all the effort, the bloody knuckles, grime, etc., became worth it. There was nothing like that first time, the sound of an engine built by your own two hands firing to life. I remember suddenly feeling like I knew an ancient secret. I had attained a truth in life only shared by a select group of people. I could fix or do ANYTHING! ...and then a backfire, flames, the smell of burnt hair and shrapnel flying past my head.

Ah yes, disappointment, frustration, and failure. I remember thinking, “I’m never going to work on that piece of crap again!” The sun would rise the next day, and I’d be right back at it.

Once I could drive… legally, if I wanted to go somewhere and my car was broken, I had to fix it. Most of what I know about cars I learned by trial and error, or read about how to do something. Every once in a while, I’d find someone to ask who knew an answer to my question and showed me not just how, but why something mechanical was a certain way.

Those are the moments I remember the most, and I do my best to pass what limited knowledge I have on to others trying to learn.