OH MAN.
I am so so so very much in love with auto maintenance class, ‘for women’ or not. We are well on our way to being mechanics, and soon I will be earning $11 an hour in my fabulous new career at a rapid oil change shop!! OK, maybe I’ll stick with dev work. But still! The thing I love about this class is it’s exactly the way woodshop is: he (Bruce, in this case) shows us how it’s done, and then walks away. He put one tire on the balancing machine, put on weights, then said, ‘OK! You do the other three.’ And I did! Sure, I cut both my thumbs with the tool used to remove the (lead, eesh) weights. When I realized I was bleeding on the tool, I handed it to Bertine to finish, while I held the tire in place. I got to use an air wrench and a torque wrench and discovered the joy of anti-seize, which would’ve saved me all the violence I have inflicted upon Chico while changing tires stuck on the hub, had I known about it then. I had black grime up to the elbows. It was awesome. So tonight I rotated and balanced my tires. Next week I will do my brakes. Also on the to-do list: oil change, spark plugs, transmission fluid, air filter, and fog lamps. The only thing I can’t do is fix the dent caused by the forklift incident. That’s being taken care of by the assailant. I think the best moment tonight was when he showed us how to make our own ramps out of 2x12s. My eyes lit up… woodshop and autoshop. Perfect harmony. Yes!Jenni ‘…’ Ripley