Blissfully Happy

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

I consider myself a bright person.

But have you ever done something - maybe even for what seems like a million times - and then all of the sudden you realize a totally better, possibly easier way to do it?

Yeah.

Me too.

Just today in fact.

I was trying to change the date on a date stamp. I've had the hardest time with it since I started using it...oh...about a year ago! I kept pushing the rubber part and I'm always afraid it's going to stretch and break. And I always get ink all over my fingers and it doesn't come off easily. Then today I was getting ready to change the date. I had to change the 9 to a 0 and there are about 5 gaps between those two numbers. It's a pain. Well, today was my lucky day because I noticed some little washer-like things between each set of numbers. I had an idea and thought I'd give it a try. Just as I thought. You turn the washer-like thing and the numbers move! And you don't rip the rubber and you don't get ink that does wash off on your fingers! For those of you who already knew that's how you change a date stamp, spare me the emails. I already feel like an idiot! Duh!

It's been raining a lot here. Surprising for the desert. My fiance and I were driving to a birthday party last night and my windshield wipers stopped functioning correctly. It reminded me of the time my friend Roadrunner and I decided to change the windshield wipers. It was the first time I'd lived away from home (clear across the country away from home) and I was feeling pretty independent. I was learning how to fix my own car - well, parts of it anyways. I had recently changed the break lights and I was feeling pretty cocky. On to bigger and better things.

The windshield wipers.

We bought the blades and went out to the parking lot to replace the old ones. For any of you who have never so much as LOOKED at your windshield wiper blades, let alone changed them, let me explain something. There is a right way to put them on and there is a wrong way. One end has a stopper on it - that's supposed to be on the outside. Well, Roadrunner and I had never done this before and had no idea what we were doing! Which became quite apparent about an hour later when we finally got the new blades on. We had been trying to slide the stopper part on first. Yeah, didn't work so well. Then, as soon as we got them on we saw the open end gaping at us like a naked squid. (That was the first thing that came to my head, but you get the picture). At the same moment we realized our car had two different length windshield wipers. Back to the store for another, shorter, set of wipers. Yep, one whole hour spent on these babies.

Every experience we go through is one we learn from. Sometimes we can ask for help along the way, sometimes we learn more by messing up and starting over. I know I'll never forget how to change a windshield wiper blade.