Let's just put this out there.....I hate depending on others for...well...pretty much anything. Maybe it's because I don't want to put anyone out or I don't want to feel the pang of disappointment when they fail me, either way it's something I avoid if at all possible. Unless of coarse, I am asking to be taught so I can learn.
Back in my late teens I was determined to figure out how to change my own oil on my car. I asked my boyfriend to instruct me how to do this without any hands on help from him. As I rolled under the car on the creeper he and his cousin cracked a few beers. First, I was to unscrew the oil filter from underneath the car. "Just remember: righty tighty lefty loosey babe." Thing 1 yells out as Thing 2 giggles between gulps of brew.
I start to loosen the filter and hot oil runs down my arm. Nice. I let it drain while looking around underneath trying to figure out what was what. When the time came, I put a small amount of oil on my finger and ran it around the top of the new filter before putting it back in place. As I start to roll out from underneath the car, my butt length hair that was in a pony tail gets caught up in the wheels of the creeper...so tight I can not stand up. Note to self: wear a bun or braid while working on cars.
This amused Thing 1 and Thing 2 greatly and neither one were very quick at helping me get untangled, but once they did I finished the job. I never have changed my oil since, but at least I can say I did it!
Current day: My front headlight burned out. I purchase the new bulb at a local auto parts store but when I popped the hood I saw that there is a bar running across where my fingers need to go to get to the burnt bulb. I go back in and ask for a wrench. They think I am stupid. "You don't need any tools, just unscrew the bulb and snap the new one into place." I am immediately annoyed. I come across another employee and hope for better results. I ask him for a wrench. He looks like I asked for a million dollars. He too, insists, I need no tools to do this task.
I point him to my vehcile. He walks over and looks under the already popped hood. "Oh. Gee. I guess you will need a wrench to loosen these bolts and then you can change out the bulb." "You don't say?" I respond sarcastically. I had to come to see this was a lost cause but damned if I was going to give this place anymore of my money knowing very well they could have borrowed me a wrench (or if they were sooooo worried I was going to steal it, then loosen/retighten the bolts for me!).
So I went over to a teammates to borrow one of her husband's wrenches...well truth be told he actually changed the bulb as I watched not that I asked him too. He just walked out of his garage and started doing it, but at least I can say I know how to do it!
Lesson learned here? I need a set of my own wrenches.
I have read the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold three times now, and this says something because usually I don't re-read books (Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo would also be an exception) rather pass them onto the next person. In this book a young teenage girl gets murdered by a whack-job neighbor in a cave that apparently he made just such an occasion and where her body lies while her family looks for her. The book is entirely seen through her eyes as she narrates how her family copes with her missing, later found dead, and how her father gets suspicious of the neighbor.
