Mechanically Handicapped

Compared to the other males in my family, I feel like the black sheep. The different one. They have a problem with something mechanical, they just tear it down and fix it. "Sure, the head gasket went on the engine, but I just tore it down and decided that I'd add.... blah blah blah... and now it also puts twice as much torque!"  Writing that sentence right there is about as close to working on an engine, and having the engine function afterwards, as I get.

I have to do simple things like change a bike tire and it starts to feel like an impossible task. I literally don't have the words for the parts - and the results that you get when you google "fix bicycle thingy into other thingy" aren't as useful as I'd like them to be. Another problem is that some of the things that I need to fix, like our house or some of my bicycles, are older than I am. Much older. The older things aren't so much "buy new part and unsnap old part, snap new part, done!". They are more like "Well, first you have to smelt some iron. Then you take it to the local blacksmith...". Well, maybe not that bad, but they are definitely from an era where "fixable by the common man" had a different meaning.

*sigh* I just get frustrated sometimes with my own inadequacies. In the meantime amuse yourself with a picture of my on an old bike.

Look ma! No sense!