Dear Good Hours.
Apologies. I know it’s been a minute, but this time of year feels almost like hibernation. Sleepy stagnation.
There is work to do at the house up north, but that budget got hijacked by a car repair.
Now we’ve been hijacked by a different, bigger, car repair. The oil pump on my medium (middle) child’s car is going out. The oils pump is… let’s call it the heart of the vehicle, oil, gross as it is, being the blood.
An oil pump is a big repair. $1500-2000 at the shop. None of us can raise that right now. The part is less than $150, but the labor is a lot. I’m looking at the biggest engine tear down and put together that I’ve done since maybe 2006.
I’m feeling a little intimidated. It’s a big deal.
Today, because it’s fucking winter, in preparation, I tore my shop apart so I could pull her car inside.
I rearranged everything.
I, with some help from my daughter, hauled three loads of benches and stand tools over to our storage unit to make room to pull the car inside and close the garage door. I moved my auto tool box over to the far wall and a makeshift workbench clamped onto an old school B&D Workmate.
I’m nearly set to start the work. In a few days I’ll have the anticipated parts and the required, mysterious, crankshaft tool, the Haynes Manual (the car specific repair bible, all praise its name) said I need to acquire.
*****
Here’s my anxiety problem.
It’s my problem. I own it. You can’t have it.
I believe in creative inertia. It’s as inevitable as The First Law of Motion. This time of year is a hurdle in progress all by itself, the wall repairs at the new house are a distraction all alone, now a major car engine tear apart…
Pulling my shop apart. Fuck. Will I ever put it back together again?
Or….Or!
Will I obsess about how it goes back together? Will I dive into binge and purge and rearrange and rebuild shop infrastructure masturbation until my dick is sore and chaffed.
Does anyone have a good medicated lotion to recommend?
Shop infrastructure is important. It is. But it’s the ultimate expression of fapping/jacking off. It feels fucking amazing. It doesn’t accomplish shit.
Not really.
I have woodworking projects I need to accomplish. I have an upcoming woodworking/blacksmithing combo class, something I’ve only teased here without giving any real info yet…(hold on!)
This time of year sucks for me… my apologies. Especially if you are a paid subscriber.
The long story short is… the shop is mostly fucked for now!!!! And when I write it will be a combination bitching about hex head bolts in unreachable places and bare, cold hours I’m spending pounding out a fantasy novel, (which is the only thing I’ve made progress on in the last month, but at least it’s something)
This is me.
Pounding away.
Three hundred words,
Or more a day.
****
Gotta keep working on something, right?
Love Derek
Ratione et Passionis
Derek, I feel your pain. I have been through that valley myself. As much as I truly enjoy the woodworking, mechanics has always been my true comfort zone. It’s just a car, it cannot win. Timing always seems to be a bitch. Without going into the reasons, I really wish I was in a position to offer help. I cannot. But you shall persevere and conquer, it just won’t be fun. This I know as opposed to the halftime team sport bullshit that they say builds character. Most of us have all the character we need, some extra money, and time would come in handy. Persevere my friend! May you enjoy one of the miracles that seem to float around this time of year. Happy Christmakwanarhomadis!