Magpie #44

Charles, my future brother-in-law, was 16 the first time I met him.  In an unheated garage attached to the house, he was elbow deep in the guts of his Bombardier Ski-doo; tinkering, puttering, tuning up and just fiddling with the engine to get it to function the way he wanted it to.

Like his dad, Charles was good with machines.  I admired him that, but I didn't envy him.  No, the desire to fix and or repair is not part of my genetic makeup.  It's not that I can't do it, it's just that I don't want to.  Tools?  Yes, of course, I have tools.  I even have some power tools, but given my druthers, I prefer hand tools to those with the inherent ability to maim quickly and severely.
Friends and I cut our own wood for a few years and I discovered that I couldn't sharpen my chain saw evenly, so  it always cut in a curve until I took it to a professional to right it.  I couldn't keep a lawn mower running smoothly for more than 3 years without an expensive repair bill or just replacing it.  My rototiller gave out after a few years.  I was never able to master the string outlet of my multiple weed whackers.  I say multiple because whenever the one I was using ran out of string, I'd just go buy a new machine.  Machines are great time savers but I find them to be unreliable.  So in time two things evolved in my approach to tasks around the manse:  I was well enough off to be able to hire someone to do upkeep tasks and alternatively I could do some tasks myself with hand tools.  It takes much longer to spade a garden by hand, but the spade doesn't break down, I get a good physical work-out and an overwhelming sense of satisfaction for a job well done.

Some years back, my youngest inquires: "dad, you make more money than most of my friend's dads, and I was wondering how come they all have things like snow-mobiles, 4 wheelers, motor bikes, and motor boats and all like that there, and we don't."

"There are a number of reasons for that Jay, but honestly the main reason is simply that I won't waste my money on something that is guaranteed to break down and I don't know how to fix."

I do have a car.
I do have a laptop computer
I do have a cell phone
And now I have a blasted Snow blower.

No, I don't have a clue as to how to fix any of them should they malfunction (and you and I both know that they will indeed malfunction.)

Sometimes you compromise your principles; it's part of being human.

I think perhaps I'll Christen my kayak Rosebud!

#7

Succulent green shoots

test the air

Like timid toes into the lake.

Searching for light

Feeling for warmth

Photosynthesizing

Bursting forth

Like the sun on the horizon

Pale buds unfurl

Until, fulblown,

Bright yellow trumpets,

In a tide of jonquils.

Reveille, reveille

They shout:

Welcome spring!