dusting off the cobwebs

Hello there! Yes - serious cobwebage around here. (There is a 'web' pun in there somewhere, but we don't want to force it now, do we?)

In my quest for self-improvement I've started thinking about what I want to start doing better. I'm asking myself - what do I want to learn, as I head into the middle ages?

I've always been really bad at tinkering with mechanical things. I'm just not a very good fix-it-up kinda chappie. Some of this is not having the right baseline knowledge. But much of this comes from good old fashioned mental blocks. A kind of learned helplessness.

So I'm taking the horns by the bull. Or is it catching the tail by the tiger?



Pardon the digression, but really - who doesn't love a little Fraggle Rock in the middle of their epiphanies? As I was saying, I'm trying to fix my mechanical inadequacies. I've also become increasingly interested in bicycles lately (bicycles might just be replacing motorcycles as the symbol of the new urban midlife crisis, but that is a whole post in itself). Ah - bicycles! The simplest of machines - pure Newtonian physics at work. And sexy to boot.

So my new project is to get better at fixing bikes, working my way towards putting together my very own road bicycle. And hopefully, I'll learn a little about tools and grease and how mechanical things go together. Not shooting for genius level wizardry here - I'd be happy if I can simply achieve basic competence. And maybe I can start to have half a clue when my dearest beloved starts to throw down her handygrrrl skills.