sniffles

[Today’s run: 3.2 miles – some short walking intervals]

We seem to have a cold or bug in our house. My wife had it first and now I do. My nose is running and I’m sneezing. I’m a little low on energy, but not terribly bad.

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Yesterday was primary day here. I made it in to the polling place and did my thing. It was local and statewide offices. A lot of the positions just had one named option. I was only excited about one guy, and I think he will probably keep his current position. Otherwise, not much excitement.

When we lived in Colorado I went to some caucuses and was somewhat involved. I don’t even know how the parties work here in Mississippi.

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I was over at the neighbor’s house this evening. He has a ’67 Impala convertible that he bought not long ago. It has some quirks. The one he’s had me look at is the electrical circuit for the brake lights in back.

I’ve come to a conclusion. The positive rails in the fuse box are set so that the fuse holder on one side of each fuse circuit is a little piece of metal crimped to the positive rail. The other side then goes to a wire and out to whatever is next in that circuit. The brake light fuse, the crimp of the hot side of the fuse does visible sparking. It is loose. I don’t know how to tighten it down. So I think we are going to bypass the OEM fuse box and use an in-line fuse instead, just for that circuit.

I wish I didn’t have to do that because then the wiring is no longer “factory”. It has some wiring changes now but actually is pretty original over all.

I’m of very mixed emotions about working on this car. It is a nicely painted car. I’m sure it probably cost quite a bit. Although I like the simplicity, I don’t trust myself to come up with good solutions.

Not only that, but, the other things I help with are usually related to his household or family vehicles or the truck he needs to make a living. I don’t feel particularly adequate for those things, but I’d like to see them fixed and working.

The antique car is a toy. I don’t think he is even that excited about doing car repairs or anything. Mostly, I think it is for driving around and looking good. And that is fine. I hope he enjoys it.

But I don’t like that maybe he assumed I would be excited to fix it. And usually he stands and watches me work on it. I already have an old car project, which isn’t going anywhere.

Anyway, sometimes when he asks me to work on the toy car I try to give him advice about what I would try and encourage him to go do it. That seems to be working a little bit.

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One of my worries about oncoming age is that I’ll turn out to be a grouch.

I tend that way now. I’ll tell my wife, “sure! I’ll help you with that” and after about 50 times walking the dog or whatever, I start thinking, hey, this is not my dog, why am I stuck doing this. And it is easy to start getting snippy and dropping hints about the idiot dog and maybe we could give him to the neighbors, etc.

That’s a pattern for me. Not a good one.

One thing that helps is to take a break, just get away from that chore for a week or something. Then I can calm down and revisit why I am doing this thing. (Like why I help the neighbor with his cool-dude car: because he’s my neighbor.)

I didn’t know my maternal grandparents very well. Which is odd because they lived next door. I spent more time with my paternal grandparents. I worked for my paternal grandfather for a summer. He could get grouchy and sometimes a bit snippy, but not very often. And I think when he was old and more lonely that came out, possibly. His wife was a very meek and quiet person. My father takes after his mother mostly. He’s in his mid-80’s and seems to have a good supply of patience. I’ve always wondered if my grandfather’s thing was because he was the youngest of like, 10? children. So he may have been a bit spoiled :-).

I don’t have that excuse since I wasn’t the youngest. But sometimes I’m just an ass.

All of that above stuff was just to say that I think I am more like grandpa and less like grandma.

None of them were shouters or cussers or anything like physical or abusive in any way. The max was “grumpy” and I’m hoping I can smooth on that a bit.

We will see how I do.