Don't blow the house up
Getting over the fear of trying something new, my small journey into changing out some steel braided fuel lines
My first post :) This has nothing to do with the software I write, it's something more fun, enjoy!
If you’re anything like me, your initial reaction to trying something new might be based upon your current skill set and the chance you believe you can successfully complete a project. To give an example, if I were to write a new app then I’d barely think about it (from a difficulty perspective). I’m comfortable just launching in. If I were to build a fence? Or replace fuel lines on my RX7? Hmm. Not so sure about that.
Did someone say RX7? Why yes indeed! Here is what started out as a “good idea” over a curry, and has morphed over the last 10 years to what you see below:
In short, more power than a V6 F-150 (apparently one of the most common cars in the USA), and about ½ the weight. That equals: vrroomm! It also shoots flames out the back. Excellent.
On with the story. A friend asked me to drop his daughter off at a party. You know, show up with a fancy car, make noises, and so on. So off I drove, to pick her up. Hmm. Seems to smell a bit … “fuel-ey”, but I’ve had that before when the car has been sitting for a bit. Get 2 miles down the road, and I’ve used 1/8th of a tank of gas. That's not good. So I pull over, with the car still running. Check the back, get down and check underneath, all looks OK. Decided to pop the bonnet (there - you get to learn a new word for ‘hood’), and ghhhhaaa there’s a geyser of fuel spewing from the lines. A veritable river of it gushing down onto the road and into the gutter.
Skipping forward one change of underwear and a tow later (car is now back home): I’ve two choices. Send it to someone, or do it myself. In the past, almost all work has been done by other people. I’ve never done this before. I want to, but what am I getting myself into here?!
I decided to do the latter but I wasn’t sure how long the job was going to take, so I planned for it to be days in case I missed parts. I first had to work out how not to blow the house up. Fuel is dangerous when mixed with air. Like when you’ve gotten half way through the job, fuel lines disconnected, and your car sitting in your garage for days. So I went and ordered some parts (sort of like metal bottle caps). Parts arrive and we begin the journey with some help from Mr YouTube.
The result? We (slowly) did it! And even while we were in the middle of it all, I didn’t blow the house up! Awesome. So now I’m more comfortable with this kind of job & have less fear of ‘the next time’, which is important because I only did half the job. More to follow - the rear of the car.
So the point of all this?
- I’m 52 - and it is possible to learn something new
- Friends can make the journey better
- Not blowing up houses is good
Thinking about fuel lines and 4 foot long flames always gets you thinking about capture software right? Right! Use iShowU to create videos in realtime from your mac, or SWB Audio App to capture audio for use in other apps.
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