Can't Never Could

"Fixing a bad fix is always harder than fixing the original problem."

True. My god that's true. My buddy the gunsmith made his bread and butter and turkey with gravy fixing firearms that someone had tried to "fix" at home. One of the worst framing jobs I'd ever been on was one where the home owner had framed the walls to his dream home and contracted us to frame and finish the roof. The plans had read "8' wall height" so he'd cut his 93" studs off so the wall would be exactly 8' tall when stood up...I can only imagine the night mare of finishing the inside.

But. He did it. And I was there holding his hand as we cobbled his roof together atop walls an inch and a half too short. Now he has an understanding of blue prints, hip roofs, and why framers put a "band" around the top plates of walls to make running  jack rafters, hips, and valleys as easy as pie. I bet he'll be able to do the next one faster and more efficiently... however, I bet he never will!

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (you knew it was coming) is almost a manifesto for do-it-yourselfers. It might be bragging to say that I was a kid who liked to take stuff apart and fix things way before I ever read the book in the 1990's, but that was the case. It was the book that seemed to codify (there's no other word for it really) my approach, good or bad, to the world around me. That approach had little to do with math and offices and even other people for a while.

A life of early poverty and a long line of hunk-of-junk autos kept me deep into manuals and parts stores and junkyards. How do you replace the fuel pump on a 1976 Corolla wagon? Well, taking a used one out of a junkyard Corolla is a good place to learn. Reverse steps to reassemble.

Obviously, Pirsig wrote his book way way before computers took over our lives. The internal workings of one of them things can be foreign to a "Man of Action" like me...I've been know to beat the side of a PC as if it were a TV with a snowy, flipping image. But when you do get that printer to work, or when you do get that red exclamation point to go away from your list of "things" on your PC, you'll have a warm, fuzzy feeling.

He wrote:

 It should be inserted here parenthetically that there's a school of mechanical thought which says I shouldn't be getting into complex assemblies I don't know anything about. I should have training or leave the job to a specialist. That's a self-serving school of mechanical eliteness I'd like to see wiped out...

You're at a disadvantage the first time around and it may cost you a little more because of parts you accidentally damage, and it will undoubtedly take a lot more time, but the next time you're way ahead of the specialist. You, with gumption, have learned the assembly the hard way and you've a whole set of good feelings about it that he's unlikely to have.

Naturally, the older I get, the lazier I get. I've stepped away from things that I could've done with enough time. But more often than not, I've had success in doing things myself. Maybe because I'm working with things that have substance, that have ghosts or personalities, like cars, houses, rifles...

Success can be measured many different ways. I mean, I've called the experts after I've tried all I know to try--turning things on and off: rebooting! And what I don't know about changing a circuit breaker could probably kill me dead. But I have a little success story I want to share. It's an easy read.

And just like that, no shivering in the cold waiting for "the guy".

I reckon not every attempt will end in achieving the goal of "fixed", but don't be afraid to dig in and try. You'll learn so much, and you'll accumulate so many tools that you might be able to wow your neighbors when you just show up one day, turn a screw, and solve all their problems.

I mean, like I've told myself, and my kids, a thousands times, "Hell, it's already broke. You can't break it. Fix it."