Repair Above the Air
Posted at 5:15 AM on May 11, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(26 Comments)
I'm interested in the latest Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. It combines two things I like a lot. Outer space. And people who know how to fix things.
My father is a man who likes to immerse himself in a repair job. I spent my youth holding a flashlight over the open engine compartment of a '65 Corvair or a '68 Chrysler New Yorker, training the beam on the *#!* fuel pump or the #%*! master cylinder, fetching a ¼ inch socket or a gasket or a rag to mop up some dripping oil. It was tedious work, requiring patience and focus, like running a space mission.
I did OK on the patience part.
I'll admit my focus drifted.
But things were spiced up by the grunting and some colorful language that sometimes came shooting up from underneath the vehicle. I hope NASA doesn't clamp down on the cursing. It's an important part of any maintenance job. Cursing helps the mechanic deal with a wide range of common frustrations - parts that won't detatch and places that are too tiny to reach, tools that won't work or worse - can't be found.
In my father's garage, it seemed that once a tool was set down, it was likely to disappear. In outer space, they literally float away. I know what that's like.
Because my only job to hold the flashlight and fetch sockets, I never did learn to be good at fixing things, and my auto repair victories are rare. The most recent big success was replacing a radio antenna in a 1993 Camry last summer. I still get a little dizzy thinking about it, because I had to lay across the driver's seat with my head down where the accelerator pedal is. For 20 minutes. You can't walk a straight line right after doing that, but it was worth the trouble.
In a throw-away society where people are encouraged to replace worn out things rather than repair them, we are going cold turkey on a decades-long new stuff spending binge, and the average person who can fix something and extend its life is a geniuine folk hero.
Anyone have a story to tell about an extremely satisfying repair on something you might otherwise have thrown away?
Comments (26)
Morning everyone,
I am one of the last diehard fixers. I try my best to repair before replacing something. I grew up with wire, screws, nails, and duct tape. My latest was modifying a battery compartment on my cordless mouse to accept "aaa" batteries instead of "aa" batteries. It would have been easier to just go buy the right size, but I had a whole batch of the other ones on hand.
Good Monday morning,
I live alone on a small farm with horses, goats, chickens, dogs and cats...horses and goats especially are really hard on the "furniture" so I have had lots of "on the job" training on lots of repairs. I grew up with a mother and father neither of whom were fix-it type people. But, Mike's list of essential "tools" is similar to mine: duct tape, baling twine, bungee cords, hammer and nails...and a neighbor across the road for the real emergencies!
Hoping my office is repaired from the water damage so I can work on the easy things (computer) again...though, time at home was a gift, few repairs got done.
I wouldn't say I'm the most competent fixer, but I do like to take care of things myself if I can. I like to change the oil in my car - makes me feel like Helen Reddy (I Am Woman - Hear Me Roar).
As spring seems more dependable in the past week, I have rehung a door in the house, fixed the bottom panel on the fridge and fixed the back porch door screen. Sounds pretty good and competent when I string all the tasks together like that! Maybe I'm a better fixer than I think!
Have a great Monday Heartlanders!
My father was a lot like yours, Dale, I think. He was too busy with his do it yourself projects to teach me very much about what he was doing and their was some "strong words" associated with his efforts.
However, I can do some of my own home repairs and find myself also using some "strong words". Plumbing is one of my most furstrating areas of attempted home repair. It usually takes several trips to the hardware store and lots or trial and error. By about the third attempt I might get the repair made.
Follow-up on cordless mouse. I just had to put a small piece of metal between the contact and the battery to make a tight connection. It only took 10 minutes to find the right piece to use. I have done this with flashlights as well.
I can remember my early days with my father and "helping" to fix things around the house. Why is it that no matter how hard you try the flashlight just will not shine on the spot your father has pointed out? That is the biggest mystery of all.
Time for Charlie Maquire's song about home repair? along with the galaxy song...perhaps?
I am not very good with the real repair. I do, however, pride myself on the ability to come up with the "work-around". Still I wouldn't mind hearing "Powertools Are a Girl's Best Friend"
Good Morning!
First off is what a great investment buying Dale PhotoShop was! I think it's one of the best uses of my membership dollars I can point to.
My father had a hard core depression era mentality coupled with a genetic inability to throw anything away if there was any possibility of it getting fixed or re-purposed. It's not that he was particularly talented at fixing things though he did OK. He didn't have any curse words in his toolkit which could well have reduced his ability. I know my toolkit is well-stocked with curse words and I do pretty darn well though pretty is not often part of the solution, just function.
My favorite repair was a early '60's van I had that was so rusted out that on a trip, to Chicago I think, the body rusted through where it connected to the frame and dropped down on the rear wheel. It was a joint solution with my girlfriend at the time and we jammed a 2x4 into the back floor, propped up to the roof inside the van and drove a couple nails through the roof from the outside to keep the board from sliding out of position with the road vibration. We drove the van for several months that way after the trip. I don't recall what it's final demise was, perhaps it simply rusted completely out of existence.
I'm much better at the cursing part than the repairing part.
Speaking of - Lou and Peter Berryman's f-word/mother song Sat. night was a kick! Loved the story about them singing it for the 1st time on a radio show, and the producer saying they could play anything as long as it didn't have the f-word in it.
Greetings Heartlanders! My father sounds a lot like Mark's dad -- except my father was quite good at it fixing things. I thought my dad could do anything -- and generally without swearing, too. One winter he built a simple kayak that I loved to take out by myself at our cabin as a kid.
With 6 girls and 1 boy in family, my brother is also quite good at fixing and home construction stuff. He's done some amazing stuff in his house. Andy & his wife have no kids, so the downstairs is Andyland -- a guy's basement. The bathroom has a urinal and a beautiful mosaic on floor from beer bottle caps done to resemble a picture of his wife snorkeling underwater -- extremely cool (but very tasteful as well).
I am totally inept at fixing and my husband can do some stuff if he tries -- but the cussing, yelling and frustration he goes through is more than I want to deal with. But, my sweetie is extremely talented at keeping the computers running and protected. So we have wonderful computers while the house falls apart around us ...
good morning, All! my Dad was an excellent carpenter - he built beautiful things, from kitchen cabinets to churches. and i'm sure that his wide and varied use of curse words was integral to his success. Dad was insistent on perfection in anything he did. my brother got that part of Dad along with the ability to fix things. i just got the ability to fix things and certainly the necessary vocabulary, but not the perfection part. so like Mark, pretty isn't usually how anyone would describe my fixes. and like Cynthia, duct tape is a huge part of my repair plans. (although i have learned not to use it around goats since they will merely chew it off whatever it is holding together) but i envy Sherrilee in her ability to hang a door. i think Mike exemplifies the trait that the best fixers have: fearlessness in dreaming up and attempting repairs.
right now i'm attempting to repair Heldig, who suddenly took ill on saturday - symptoms much like the Little who died with weakness and inability to suckle. i've given him vitamin/mineral supplements and (with some fear) intubated him saturday afternoon, and since then have fed him Alba's milk each time putting that tube into his tummy. this morning he is doing a bit better - not great still. we hope this will be my best so far.
a good refresher to come in to listen to RH and those great tunes. thanks so much!
My job includes lots of fixing. Fixing broken networks, server systems, etc. I fixed my washing machine once instead of buying a new one. Whenever something doesn't work in my home, the words "Mom" can be heard over the sound space. My husband wanted to use a Diana camera, both of which are broken, this weekend. "Is there a working Diana camera available yet?" I specifically avoid trying my hand at car repairs. The last thing in the world that I need is to be declared the proficient fixer of anymore items in my place of residence!
In our house I am the one who fixes things (my daughter is pretty convinced I can fix anything...but she's not quite 5 - I'm sure her total disillusionment on that front will come soon).
As for a favorite fix, I don't know that I have one. I'm still pretty proud of rebuilding the carburetor for the Honda Civic I had back in college.
Best payment for a "fix" or "OTIP" (Other Than Intended Purpose) was the look of absolutely adoration and glee on Daughter's face for adding a bar onto her climber set so she could turn upside down and hang from her knees. The set didn't have anything like that - so off I went to the plumbing section at Home Depot...with the right length of pipe and another 4x4, she can hang upside down all she likes (bonus: I can raise it as she gets taller without much work).
P.S. To Mark - very impressed with the 2x4 solution for your van! My kind of car repair.
Good morning to eveyone this Monday morning.....
How does your garden grow?
Ahhh....fixing things...I'm hopeless but Bill on the other hand can fix just about anything that's worth fixing. From cars to bikes to furniture and he loves to work on guitars. However there is no duct tape used at our house.
He was so excited last night telling me all about how they plan on fixing the Hubble after he saw the story on-line.
Off topic song request...last night we heard June Tabor doing Richard Thompson's Waltzing's for Dreamers. Do you happen to have that?
If not Richard would do as well...
Thanks,
This past Saturday was "Christmas in May." A large number of volunteers turned out in Chaska to help those in need. We were in a group that took on the repair and rebuilding of a play structure that had fallen victim to a large fallen willow branch. It was both a challenge and fun taking a structure that many people would simply demolish and rebuilding it instead. I love working with wood!
I like to repair things around the house, too. By the way, I have the T shirt that says, "Power Tools Are a Girl's Best Friend." The best Christmas present I ever got (from my husband) was a chop saw!
Forgot to mention that we saw Tony Bennett last night. He is still AWESOME! Could you please play one of his songs, Dale?
Ah...it's so good to know that I wasn't the only 'flashlight monkey' in his youth.
My folks are quite the fixer-uppers. Growing up, we always had a special project in the summer (not-terribly-coincidentally while I was off from school). Kitchen cabinets, new carpeting, tile in the downstairs bathroom... I came to dread whenever my Dad said, "Can you give me a hand? It'll only take a half an hour...really, no longer than that." Translation: Cancel any and all plans for the next six to eight weeks.
Probably the best story I have is regarding the limestone we had around the house. We had a skirt of decorative chunks of limestone around the house I grew up in. One day, my Dad decided that those chunks of limestone weren't as white as when we'd gotten them. So, he said we had to pick up each piece of limestone, dry brush it off, then we'd put new black plastic underneath the entire skirt around the entire house, and replace the limestone pieces. Now, on the corner of the back deck was a bird feeder. After we'd pulled up the old black plastic, there was some bird seed and hulls laying on the dirt. As I was readying the new plastic, Dad said, "Wait a minute." He went and got his shop vac to vacuum up the seed and hulls, all the while berating the birds for "making a mess all over the place." Yes, my father had to vacuum the dirt because it was too dirty.
Just made an extra contribution. Thanks for enriching our lives with great music, artists, and now (with the blog) community!
Good morning Dale & everyone,
I share your interest in outer space, and am happy to see Hubble given a new lease on life. Love the photo this morning too. For more hilarious Photoshopping, check out Fark.com and look at their daily contests.
I too am committed to squeezing the longest possible lifetime out of things. My dad is pretty resourceful and I grew up watching him fix things too. His retirement project has been building a steam-powered car from scratch (early 1900’s style).
My most satisfying repair is a work-in-progress. Our family waterskis with a show ski club. I bought a much-used ski boat (now 20+ years old) that with the help of a local boating mechanic, and some of my own maintenance & fixing, has become a pretty dependable boat to teach our daughters and their friends how to waterski – a good physical activity, and hopefully good memories of summer.
Radio Heartland is testing my home repair skills. Some times it stops and doesn't come back. I can get it started again by closing and reopening the window for starting Radio Heartland. I don't know if this problem is due to my computer or to a problem with the Radio Heartland signal.
i have been terrifically proud of some repairs i've made, though none have been of the "would throw it away otherwise" variety---
but i have replaced all the insides of the toilet tank, replaced a faucet, fixed a leaky faucet, changed a flat tire more than once...
lots of paeons to dads, but i have to give credit to mom on this one. when i was 16 and she was in the deepest throes of the feminist movement, she "forced" me to help her rotate the tires on her car, so that i would know how to do it. her great invention was to give me an old piece of vacuum cleaner pipe to slip over the tire iron, thus giving me ability to loosen the bolts!
later in life, the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing how to do such things motivated me to buy a book called Dare to Repair, which has helped me with all kinds of stuff in my home. :-)
When I met my husband, he drove an OLD VW bug that by then had a fiberglass floor with the seats u-bolted to it, and the windshield defroster (and heater, for that matter) was a vacuum hose hanging over the rearview mirror. How could I resist this man?
I repaired my own typewriter once, and a sewing machine -- it was when they were still uncomplicated, and you could look inside and make sense of what was going on. Very satisfying, it was, as Sherilee said with the Helen Reddy song...
My God, where else can we hear Kip Peltoniemi's Baseball Song but here on Radio Heartland. And be able to pick it up noonish if we missed it in the early hours? I'm laughing out loud! Thanks again, Dale.
OK !! This is great ! I am a tiny step closer to joining up...first gotta learn more about HD radio ! Dale - as a fan of the Morning Show, I 'm always thrilled to realize it's saturday night and I am in the car hearing Dale ! Now I have moved into trying computer listening---and I am liking the tunes I am hearing ! Where else would I hear Jimmy Durante - other than my CD !!
And now I also find reading and writing also -- GREAT !
As a past MPR supporter who graduated to community radio --- and as a champion of innovative ideas -- I am staying tuned and hoping I do not experience too many unexpected cutoffs/drop outs.
Thanks for ths experience and chance to be part of the Future Wave !
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for going to the trouble to find us here on Radio Heartland. I'm happy to have you listening and reading and writing along with the group - don't hesitate to ask for help if you find the streaming is difficult, or the HD radio situation is a bit baffling. Because it is!
And thanks to everyone for sharing your repair stories!
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