Monday, on my way home from the Evil Day Job (EDJ), I stopped off to get gas. It’s been thawing in Minneapolis the last week or so and my car windows were pretty coated with ick from the roads. After filling up with gas, I reached for the squeegee thing and began cleaning them. I saved the front windshield for last. All was well until I lifted the windshield wiper on the driver’s side and it came off in my hand. There I am, standing at the pumps at the convenience store with a wiper blade in my hand a metal rod sticking out from my car. Oops.
There’s a service center across the street and I considered driving over there, but then I thought, well, maybe I’ll see if my dad can fix it for me first. I tossed the wiper into the passenger side and drove home.
Maybe I’ve been working with engineers for too long, but after I pulled into the garage I began to think, how hard can it be to fix it? Keep in mind that my sum total of knowledge on a car is where to put in the gas, where to refill the washer fluid, and that I need to bring my car in every 3,000 miles to get the oil changed. Not a strong base from which to start. Still, how bad could I mess things up?
I examined the wiper that was still intact, considered the blade from the other one, and figured out what I would try on my first attempt. It worked! I snapped it right into place, and boom, it was done! It was so simple, I can’t believe I ever paid anyone to put on wiper blades for me.
Feeling totally proud of myself, I posted my accomplishment on Twitter. No one commented. Okay, well, they don’t know me well enough to understand how huge this feat was. I told my dad. He started talking about the new phone he’d bought that day. 
I called his attention to my mechanical success. Good, he says, and goes back to his new phone. Sigh.
You’d think someone would be properly impressed.
That’s when it occurred to me to blog about it. Surely, y’all will understand just how awesome this achievement really was. Right?
Tags: adventures
I'm ok with paying someone to put them on now. I used to put them on myself all the time. And then… the blade arm snapped out of my hand, slammed into the windshield, and cracked the windshield all the way across. D'oh!
Well, I'm certainly impressed! I'm not mechanically inclined at all. I did put a little bookshelf together by myself once.
Yay, next we'll be calling you Handy Patti!
Having yet to be able to change the wiper blades despite being shown several times, I am totally in awe. Want to come north to Toronto and do another set?
Congratulations, patti, on your feat. I bow down to you in awe and amazement!
Can you come over and do mine?
Congrats! I wouldn't dare tackle that. I would pay for it to be done.
My dh changed mine once and the next day I was using the wipers and one side flipped and I had metal sliding on my windshield. I turned the wipers off which made driving the rest of the way to work in the rain so much fun.
Luckily one of the guys at work fixed it and it's been fine ever since.
Chris,
Ouch! I can see why you have someone else do it now. I didn't even think about maybe breaking the window.
Patti
Joely,
Thanks, but I doubt I'll ever earn the nickname "handy."
I'm mostly hopeless, but every now and then I surprise myself.
Patti
Casbahj,
Maybe your wipers connect in a more complicated way than mine do? Mine just snap right into place with a little clip. If it was more involved than that, I would have ended up calling for help.
Patti
Carolyn,
Thank you! I love all the appreciation I'm getting here because my guys at work just gave me a hard time.
Patti
Thanks, Joyce. Oh, that is too funny on your wiper! I guess car repair doesn't necessarily come with the Y chromosome.
I'm glad you found someone to fix it at work so you were able to drive home okay.
Patti