jim wrote:

snip

thanks for all the replies about being cheap/fixing stuff.. i posted
this on the honda automobile newsgroup by mistake and just about every
answer i got was why waste your time, some said old people would do this
but not them??? i guess they are younger??? me in my late 50's.. but
would like to be in my 20's again so i can refer to someone as old
people.....

friend who is a doctor said his dad was a mechanic and had his own
shop/business. he said that he can thank his dad for being a doctor
today as when he was a kid he worked in the shop and he was always given
the crap jobs like cleaning something or taking it apart but he never
would get to assemble something and get it working again..he did not
ever get the satisfaction of fixing anything....and hated every minute
that he was in that shop...

I'm more of a lurker than anything on this group, but I just thought I'd
throw my $0.02 in here. I just turned 28 last week and I'm definitely in
the "fix it if possible" group, as well as the "fix it to learn how it
works" group too. Case in point would be when I broke the tool rest on
an old wood lathe of mine, and proceeded to weld up a new one from
scratch (self-taught O/A. I wouldn't hire me for any critical/structural
welding, but this tool rest is holding up extremely nicely). Another
case was when I bought a basket-case of a car (1978 Trans-Am 400ci 4sp
BTW) in order to learn how everything worked, and to see if I could do
it. Let me tell you that it's not the best thing on the road, but it is
now at least 80% driveable (need to fix the brakes and suspension to get
it to at least 95%, unless some other bugs get shaken out) and I did it
all myself through desire and determination. You're right, there was a
lot of satisfaction and pride the day that I turned the key and it
started up with no hiccups, and there still is when something falls into
place (now if this damnable winter will end, then maybe I can do
something other than let it sit).

Suffice it to say that I'm the opposite of your doctor friend - I sit in
front of a computer all day for work and lately I've really come to
*hate* it. I think that if I could get into a decent job where I get to
work with my hands and get dirty I would jump at it in an instant (wood,
metal, auto, machine - doesn't matter - just call me Jack).

--
- Mike S. (definitely not part of the "let someone else do it"
mentality)
Natharias at lycos dot com