Quote for the Day 8/30/2008
Hiromi: If this goes really fast, I'll be so disappointed.
Hiromi set out today to repair the weather stripping around the windows on his car. He does not want a repeat of last winter's inconvenience when moisture froze inside the car door and immobilized the mechanism.
This past week he bought $113 worth of parts--a lot for a 1984 model Chevy Caprice--and purposely chose a 3-day weekend to begin, since he wasn't sure he could finish it in one Saturday. He bought a new drill index to use because he can't find his old one anywhere. He checked the weather forecast several days ahead, and this morning ate a good breakfast and read the paper and otherwise psyched himself for the big job, and then finally it was lunchtime, so he ate lunch before he started. At this point, in a moment of reflection on all the trouble he had gone to to get to this point, he uttered the quote for the day.
Then he backed the car into the shed through the doors facing south (so that he would have good light), plugged in the CD player he had carried out there for this purpose, and with music in the air he began disassembling the car door. He took a break to come in for a red handkerchief which he tied around his forehead to keep sweat from dripping into his eyes. It was folded into its three-cornered form, and the free corner stood straight up looking like a cross between an elf hat, a dunce cap, and a Western-style KKK hood. He looked in the mirror after I suggested it, and opined that it looked pretty silly. Which is why he offered at least a half-hearted apology when Andrea came to use the internet and saw his get-up.
Early this evening he allowed himself to be interrupted to go with me to pick Asian pears from the trees at our Trail West house, but grudgingly. Later, while the rest of us were waiting for him at the supper table, I told the others, "I bet he's going to say something about not being able to finish because he had to go pick Asian pears.
After he had washed up, as he was coming to the table he said, right on cue, "If I hadn't gone to pick those pears, I'd be done already." He couldn't figure out why we all thought that was so funny.
I take it that modern day dragon slayers don't take any more kindly to deterents than fairy tale knights, even when those dragons come in the form of humble-looking 24-year-old boat-sized cars. But all is not lost if the effort can be shown to be sufficiently arduous to justify careful preparation and single-minded focus, and if it ends in a triumphant It's done!
P.S. Just now, right after he announced that his job is done, he found his old drill index inside a Home Depot bag in the utility room.
********************************
Hiromi (to our tenant, who is an airplane mechanic) : I've been working today on my 84-year-old car.
Me: You mean your 1984 car.
Hiromi: Oh yeah. It's old, but not that old.
Tenant: I was thinking. . . You're going to make that car last forever.
Me: I'm gonna try.
Hiromi set out today to repair the weather stripping around the windows on his car. He does not want a repeat of last winter's inconvenience when moisture froze inside the car door and immobilized the mechanism.
This past week he bought $113 worth of parts--a lot for a 1984 model Chevy Caprice--and purposely chose a 3-day weekend to begin, since he wasn't sure he could finish it in one Saturday. He bought a new drill index to use because he can't find his old one anywhere. He checked the weather forecast several days ahead, and this morning ate a good breakfast and read the paper and otherwise psyched himself for the big job, and then finally it was lunchtime, so he ate lunch before he started. At this point, in a moment of reflection on all the trouble he had gone to to get to this point, he uttered the quote for the day.
Then he backed the car into the shed through the doors facing south (so that he would have good light), plugged in the CD player he had carried out there for this purpose, and with music in the air he began disassembling the car door. He took a break to come in for a red handkerchief which he tied around his forehead to keep sweat from dripping into his eyes. It was folded into its three-cornered form, and the free corner stood straight up looking like a cross between an elf hat, a dunce cap, and a Western-style KKK hood. He looked in the mirror after I suggested it, and opined that it looked pretty silly. Which is why he offered at least a half-hearted apology when Andrea came to use the internet and saw his get-up.
Early this evening he allowed himself to be interrupted to go with me to pick Asian pears from the trees at our Trail West house, but grudgingly. Later, while the rest of us were waiting for him at the supper table, I told the others, "I bet he's going to say something about not being able to finish because he had to go pick Asian pears.
After he had washed up, as he was coming to the table he said, right on cue, "If I hadn't gone to pick those pears, I'd be done already." He couldn't figure out why we all thought that was so funny.
I take it that modern day dragon slayers don't take any more kindly to deterents than fairy tale knights, even when those dragons come in the form of humble-looking 24-year-old boat-sized cars. But all is not lost if the effort can be shown to be sufficiently arduous to justify careful preparation and single-minded focus, and if it ends in a triumphant It's done!
P.S. Just now, right after he announced that his job is done, he found his old drill index inside a Home Depot bag in the utility room.
********************************
Hiromi (to our tenant, who is an airplane mechanic) : I've been working today on my 84-year-old car.
Me: You mean your 1984 car.
Hiromi: Oh yeah. It's old, but not that old.
Tenant: I was thinking. . . You're going to make that car last forever.
Me: I'm gonna try.
posted by Mrs. I at
6:51 PM
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