checking the things that are already fixed

You can drive a car when everything’s not right with it.

It’s a big “system”….there’s a lot going on….a lot of minor details that, when things are working right, will make it more pleasant….or less noisy….or safer…but the car will “go” with things kind of wrong with it.

Sometimes, when you hear a noise and wonder what that is….wonder what that “dry” sound is and where it’s coming from….wonder what that slight grinding or knocking or ticking or squealing or dripping or sloshing or….or any of the strange sounds that I’ve grown to obsess over as I’ve made my way through the world driving cheap cars….anyway….sometimes you start your search at the last place you should look.

You discount the thing that’s already been fixed because….well, because it’s already been fixed.

Why would the new be bad and old so soon?

So….you don’t check the parts that failed too early ….and you waste a lot of time poring over the things that “might be wrong” instead.

My front axle u-joints are fragged again.

I was checking something else over Christmas break….trying to figure things out….and noticed some weird looseness….and when I traced the problem, found that my new recent u-joints are worse than they were when I had them replaced.

I never would have checked them.

In my head, I think that I thought that the new part would be good forever or something.

Surely, the new part wouldn’t be bad….right?

That wasn’t something to concern myself with.

So….I need to pull the hubs and then pull the axles and repair those joints.

Half of the journey….maybe more….is just figuring out what the problem is.

I can’t fix what I don’t know is wrong.

And something that is supposed to be “right”….something fairly new and shiny with a veneer of goodness to it….something recently fixed and supposedly correct….is going to fly under my radar every time.

I can drive my car with a lot wrong with it.

I can get down the road with a vehicle that is an encyclopedia of squeaks and rattles that maybe only I can really hear.

I can drive it and never worry about some things if I think that they should be OK….because they’ve already been fixed once.

Already fixed…..

Hmmmmm.

Nothing is fixed forever.

The journey is all about replacing and repairing….paying attention to what’s broken and trying to fix it….moving on.

Maybe sometimes it’s just about learning what squeaks are serious and what you can live with?

Maybe it’s about paying attention?

Maybe it’s about learning what the “right things” to pay attention to are?

I’m not going to figure everything out….I just know now that I have to replace my u-joints.

That’s enough to know for now.

 

 

About Peter Rorvig

I'm a non-practicing artist, a mailman, a husband, a father...not listed in order of importance. I believe that things can always get better....and that things are usually better than we think.

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