Why can't I fix this -- learning to live with limitations

Totally agree!

And please rant more often!

It's so weird that we train kids in reading and writing and math and history and so many other things, yet these days there's very little emphasis on teaching kids how to safely use all the equipment in a metal shop, wood shop and auto shop. It's as if we're more valued for what we can take out of your bank account than our ability to be self-sustainable and self-sufficient and repair and maintain what we own without getting ripped off.

And it goes without saying the the most egregious thing kids are not taught, is how to be good parents, which is directly attributable to why there's so many awful people in this world trying to do horrible things to us every day. So often this reality we live in seems way worse than an insane asylum.

And it always seems to boil down to the fact that money is more important than caring about others and helping others... You know, like the fact that humanity works together and that making money more important than that is what's constantly tearing us apart.

 

My junior year in college, my work-study supervisor in the college computer center created a project for me and another student, who turned out to be just about the most together and confident woman I had ever been in a room with. She too was studying CS, but that was just one of her majors. It was kind of a wonder we got the assigned project done at all, between all the conversations about everything else.

Her first time visiting my dorm room, I opened the door and she saw my roommate's stereo on the shelf across the room. It exerted some kind of trance-like pull on her. I was still standing in the doorway as she walked raptly across the room, and stood there, meditatively pushing every single button, and turning every single knob.

I was watching this from the doorway with my head kind of cocked sideways and half of a smile, which she eventually noticed, and kind of snapped out of the trance, and said "oh, sorry. My brother was allowed to play stuff on the stereo any time growing up. I was never allowed to touch it."

Wiped my smile right off. First the idea of anyone being treated that way, and then—her? By her own family, who might have known her better?

 

Yeah. I hear you. I woke up one day and I was old...but still relevant. I work at teaching my child to understand cars as well as schoolwork. My wife is super strong and driven...like me. When I changed the spark plugs on my corolla she watched and helped. Every now and then I push her to learn more car,life,computer,home diy.
Jack of all trades saves you money for sure but there is a degree of satisfaction that is gained. I hope to instill this in my child.
Things are changing in this world....they always do...and will. resistance is futile. I've been lucky to have been able to adjust,learn and adapt.
Which is why from the AWS console I can build and launch EC2 instances connected to S3 buckets and then have the content pushed to a CDN for the lowest latency possible...but I can also rewire a 3 way outlet, bake a cake, balance a check book, grill a steak,make a smokeless fire pit in the woods and staple a laceration. Children learn from examples. Show. Them. How.

 

Dirty Harry:
"A man has to know his limitations."

Be honest with yourself.

Trying to go beyond your current capabilities often causes bigger problems.

Sometimes MUCH bigger.

 

I'm thinking that the world could use a 'Luscious North'....
I'm sure one or both of you know how to drive a podium.
Maybe you could teach the home office a thing or two about empowering people to DIY with just a few basic hand tools and a little knowledge.
I've said loudly and often that one of the bests gift that a parent can give a child is the ability to do home/automotive maintenance and basic repairs.
THIS would at the very least BREAK the the presumptive necessity of a lifetime of car payments that afflicts ALL people.

Priuses are a 20-year car with just a passing attention to an 'open hood' maintenance philosophy, and when I was a kid (yes, they had cars then too) a 60-month car note was absurd.
Now?
They're 72 months or even longer!

SO.....
the way you break the cycle still works in 2023.
Buy a decent car.
Pay it off, then......pay it off again,

 

Thanks for that update! I've been a Carolyn Coquillette fan since I first heard of Luscious.

As for you and Maureen, I'm not sure Less Luscious sounds right for a name, but I'm all for the idea!

 

Oop, sorry I mixed the names up.