The Manic Mechanic

I should learn to control my at-times short temper. Most of the time I am docile as a lamb, patience of Gandhi, bad stuff rolls off my back like nobody's business. But there are two situations I can positively lose it. Serious bouts of road rage, and while working on stuff. I can forgive a moment's stupidity on someone's part on the road if I know it was accidental. But if I know the other person's (I care not if it's a male or female) actions are obviously hostile, I will proceed to make their life on the road a living, vicious hell. Just ask Jeff. I've chased down sports cars with my big old Dodge Cummins 4x4, and I've taken on semis in the Mini Cooper. And somehow I've managed to remain here and talk about it.

There are times when I am working on stuff and I just get fed up with some recalcitrant part and I end up flinging it across the garage. Or if I clumsily knock stuff off a table I will sometimes clear it the rest of the way. Or if I manage to hurt myself somehow, I get sent into a rage. Take Exhibit A:



This is one of my shop grinders. Not seen in the picture to the right is the wall between the pair of garage doors. Since my latest project in The Garage Of Mayhem is replacing the two garage door openers, I had to attach and futz with a pair of sensors just off the floor and on either side of the big door opening. I found the clip-on mounts lacking, and made up a set of spacer blocks that also attach the sensor bracket to the wall in addition to the door track. This makes the bracket a great deal more solid and the sensors a lot less likely to go out of alignment and preventing the door from closing. After making myself comfortable sitting on the floor and installing all these pieces, I stood up. As my luck would go, I bashed my head on the tool rest attached to the 100+ pound machine. In the haze of stars and pain my instinct was to eke out my revenge. I punched the glass face shield, shattering it and bending up the frame and mounting.

Yeah, it's stupid, senseless, and, as usual, expensive. But for the few seconds after the impact as I held onto my throbbing skull, I did feel better. Reality sank in soon after and I went ahead with my work in the garage. Today while doing more work and cleaning up, I looked around and found an identical shield I had removed when I converted a similar grinder into a buffer, which has a completely open wheel with no enclosure or face shield. So I made up with my trusty machine and replaced it's mangled and shattered parts.

I've been like this for as long as I can remember. The incidents are too isolated to be indicative of some disorder, though I know when I had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed and I should not involve myself in intricate or involving projects or with anything expensive. Still, accidents will happen, then so will I.

Now, before anyone asks, no, I don't bust up people as I do inanimate objects. At worst I will get into a shouting session, but feel awful afterward. And in the case of road rage incidents that became face-to-face encounters, I kept my distance and mostly made the other party back off. But the guy who ran me off the road and cost me more than 1600 dollars in ultra-lightweight SSR Comp wheels, he drove off with the rear quarter of his Accord kicked in. Tit for tat, bitch.

I know I am in good company as well, since I recall a few LJ posts by some on my flist describing similar outbursts, sometimes with pictures of the resulting carnage. And besides, there is something primal and satisfying taking out one's frustration on that which done ya wrong. I stick with objects, since they don't lawyer up.