I remember going to the library and if I couldn’t find anything about what I was looking for in the old card catalog , I’d go to the well-worn set of World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica encyclopedias  and try to find the information I needed there.

Holy Smokes, the world has changed.

I’m doing some car repair and it really helps to be able to look up a video about how to pull off the repair.

Usually, what I find is completely helpful.  There’s going to be something in most of the videos that I can use to get the job done.

Sometimes it’s just wading through a lot of weirdness.

Like this video…talking about stiff u-joints and Humphrey Bogart…what’s that about?  Sometimes it’s a lot more fun to run up against the weird element than it is to go right to the pertinent information.

We’ve had all this information for just long enough that we are starting to take it for granted…we are able to take it for granted.

I remember changing out one of the two Volkswagen bus carburetors in the 1972 bus I owned at the time in our driveway in Marietta.

It was sleeting and I didn’t know what tools I should try to get together.  The engine bay is small on those old buses…and by the time they figured out that a bigger, more complicated engine was a good idea, the space to work was even more limited.

It was cramped…it was cold…but I got it out and put the junk yard replacement carburetor in and it fired right up.

Amazing.

I didn’t have the option of “looking it up”.  I just muddled through and it worked.

Victory.

Having access to these YouTube videos is kind of like having a cell phone/satellite phone/GPS on a Himalayan expedition…it changes the experience somehow when you have someone else figuring it all out for you…or you can call someone if it all goes downhill.

It is cool to be able to look stuff up.  I enjoy being able to find out how to do stuff and the visual is a good way for me to see how it’s done.

I just remember how it felt to be out in the cold and figuring it out for myself.