the future of the future
Fixed the lawnmower Saturday. It’s an old model, and was in the shed when we bought the house. It has a couple of issues, one being a hot start problem, and it tends to sputter and die if tilted to the right. I correctly hypothesized the latter problem to be an issue with the carburetor, and more specifically the float bowl needle. After removing the whole assembly and hosing everything down with almost a whole can of carb cleaner, the lawnmower ran perfectly–better than it ever has, in fact. It was a real confidence booster, especially given the disconnect between my self-perceived mechanical aptitude and what usually happens. In other words, my “mechanical past,” as it were, is more checkered than I’d care to admit. Oddly, it was good for Diane too, since a fiasco with the lawnmower meant that I likely would have been, um, “strongly encouraged” to take the Volvo to a shop instead of replacing the front brake rotors and pads myself. Performed that task last night and it was refreshing, albeit tiring, to have it done and the shudder under braking completely disappear. Little mechanical victories go a long way, and while my overall fix/break record may be hovering somewhere around .500, events like those this weekend are great.
Been listening to a lot of Everything but the Girl lately, specifically their late-’90s album Temperamental. Talk about electronic-tinged music totally devoid of the coldness that pervades the genre–this is it. Many of their songs have a personal, autobiographical quality that makes them quite accessible and affecting. “Hatfield 1980” details what I surmise was an encounter with violent crime by one of the band members, and the introspective comments near the end of the song resonate and allow the song to encompass a wider scope than merely the detached account of an event. A lot of the lyricism reminds me, weirdly, of U2’s Achtung Baby, in the sense that universal observations are made through personal narratives and snippets. Great album.