Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It Takes An Engineer (No Two!) to . . . .

I've often been told something like, "You're an engineer, so [fill in the blank]." Somehow I always tend to cringe when I hear that beginning line. Often what follows deals with something that I feel like I ought to know or understand better than I do. Now, the things in this post don't really take an engineer, but they are "engineer type" things!

One area in which I've always been a little nervous about is trying to do any sort of car repair by myself. In the past, I was very fortunate to live near my dad who is a great mechanic. I've spent many evenings watching and "helping" my dad as he did something to my car. Now that I'm 700 miles away, we're faced with either trying things ourselves or paying repair shops.




Ever since I purchased my honda accord, I've had trouble with the CD player. It worked only for about the first month and was sporadic about playing CDs (at best). Since my new job involves some driving and starts on Tuesday, I was wishing to be able to listen to CDs and mp3s. Well, after pricing a cd player and finding cool instructions that didn't look too intimidating online, we decided to take the plunge! Well, we ended up using my Honda repair book, the online instructions, the new cd players instructions as well as the adapter kit instructions! Even with all those, it did take a little time, but it worked! I'm sure those who are used to repairing cars would say this is not a big repair, but we were quite happy to find out that after a few hours, everything went back together and plays CDs perfectly!

Another thing we've had some fun with is John's birthday airplane!


We've spent two days and probably three or more hours on it so far and just have the wings left! I've utilized my organizational skills sorting and finding parts as John was the chief builder. It is a big plane! I don't know if we'll finish it before we go camping - just two days from now!

6 comments:

PoetLady said...

You have two little typos (I think)

It should be "You're an engineer" instead of "Your and engineer"

Congrats on figuring out the CD player!

Miriam said...

Maria - Thanks for letting me know! I corrected it now :)

We'll miss you this weekend. I hope your kids feel better soon.

Love,

Miriam

Anonymous said...

Nice work on the car and the plane. :)

PoetLady said...

Lisa Beth is still quite sick. She's all snotty and coughs and sneezes and sounds horrible all night. I think we made the right choice not to come camp but I will miss seeing you both!

Your sis,
Maria

Anonymous said...

I have to say I get the same sort of feeling every time someone starts out a sentence with those words. It to me seems like they think I should know everything although many time I feel like I know so little.

My husband (and others) have encouraged me to take this as a compliment and just roll with such comments.

Your Indiana friend.

Miriam said...

Julie,

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels that way! We missed you at the wedding. I've been intending to respond back to your nice long email. I'm sorry you were not able to attend. We definitely missed you!

Miriam