Why I Am Not A Mechanic

Anyone who knows me understands that I should not be trusted with tools. Bring me a shoe box with a year of receipts and I will construct you a set of books. Let me play all day with my spreadsheets and charts. But don't let me try to actually fix anything.

I bought my snowblower in 1992. Two carriage bolts hold each of two skegs on the bottom of it and are slotted to set the base clearance. I adjust them between my driveway and the neighbors because my crusher dust needs a layer of snow cover and her paving stones don't. Bolts were rusty, hard to turn. Rather than use penetrating oil, I use brute force and ignorance. Three bolts tighten, one breaks off clean. I buy four new carriage bolts and nuts, might as well replace them all. One bolt broken, two removed successfully (again without penetrating oil). Fourth one starts turning, either the square shoulder of the carriage bolt or the square hole in the snowblower bale  rounded off. Borrow nut splitter from father-in-law (who knew they made a neat tool like this?), crack the nut and remove bolt. Snowblower hole rounded off, of course. Buy regular bolt and install it. This one will take two wrenches to adjust from now on.

The not a mechanic part isn't about the skill level I fail to display, though. It is more because I got absolutely no level of enjoyment out of the tinkering. Red Green would laugh at me........

(Note to self:  Think about getting a new snowblower before too long.)