I was thinking about my childhood, and growing up with a Dad like mine.
When we had a plumbing problem, did we call the plumber? Nope.
When we had an appliance problem, did we call the appliance man? Nope.
When we had an electrical problem, did we call an electrician? Nope.
When we had a flat tire, did we call triple A? Absolutely not!
I know you’re thinking to yourself, “Wow! Your Dad can fix everything!”
True, true.
But he didn’t fix everything. My Dad told me what to do so I could fix everything...
I built my first fire when I was 5. Kindle, to me, will forever be small pieces of wood that you start a fire with…not a portable device with millions of books on it.
Also at 5, I learned how to drive a car on my father’s lap. And a motorcycle.
I knew how to drive a car by myself at age 8.
I changed my first flat tire when I was 9, my Dad thought it was time I learned.
At ten years old, I learned to drive a car with a manual transmission (stick shift).
When I was fourteen years old my Dad gave me my first car, a Nissan Pulsar.
I could keep her if I changed the transmission. Yup, I said her.
I pulled out my first tranny at 14 from my Pulsar.
I changed brake pads and rotors for the first time when I was 15, and in the same year did my first oil change.
At 17, I bought my second car. I sometimes call her the “blue banana”.
I took out the transmission and engine at the same time, and put in new(er) ones.
Just recently (age 19) I fixed the heater for his house.
I remember figuring out that it’s actually pretty uncommon to know how to change a tire in middle school.
It’s weird growing up. You realize that your parents were right about a lot of things.
And you begin to appreciate it.
My Dad would always say, “You might marry someone who doesn’t know how to do this, so you have to learn how.”
He was being mostly sarcastic, he just meant that he wanted me to be self-sufficient.
I see it now.
Rainy season in Sacramento is always fun. Who doesn’t love mud?
I must’ve been 10 or 11, and I got a car stuck in the mud in our backyard.
This was pretty foreign to me, I had never been stuck before!
The car wouldn’t budge. ):
So I went and grabbed my Daddio, cause he can fix anything.
“What do we do?” I asked.
He said we needed to try a few things…
The first thing he tried was rocking the car back and forth by putting it in drive then reverse, drive then reverse, drive then reverse. It didn’t work!
So then we tried putting wood boards underneath the tires, and it worked!
I learned a lesson that day…
Now let us skip a few years later to…a few months ago!
I was in my car pulling out of my apartment parking lot.
This was in Utah. There was a lot of snow. So glad I’m in Cali now!
Anyway, there is a pretty deep dip/ditch at the end of the drive way, and I had to stop because 600 south is a really busy street, and cars needed to pass.
The cars pass, and it’s clear! I press on the gas aaaand I don’t go anywhere…what?!
I was stuck!
The first thing that came to my mind was to go awkwardly ask my neighbors if they’d give me a push.
But then I remembered this one time when my Dad was trying to get a car unstuck…
So I tried the back and forth thing, and it worked!
Moral of the story: California is better than Utah. Just kidding! Settle down.
Parents are just so smart!
And yes, I know how to fix things that Chris doesn’t, but that’s because I had a Dad like mine. (:
