An old saying says that no one would have ever crossed the ocean if they could have gotten off the ship during a storm at sea. Some things you endure because you’re left with no way out.

Everything else – the dishes, the garden, the car repair, the hair cut – can be put off. Do that enough though, and life is a mess.

Right now, I want out of a certain endless and seemingly impossible car repair. Enough! And yet, it has to be done.

So far everything about this simple procedure fails.  I’m driving in spirol split pins. There is not enough room to deliver a strong whack with the hammer. The pin just flies off into some hidden corner and has to be found and retrieved. It’s an exercise in futility. It seems that every fix on this car no matter how simple is just a micro nanometer short of impossible because of one or another combination of obstacles. It tries my patience. No wonder people hire out mechanical work.