As I look around my house, there are really more things that have been fixed than things that haven't. Just looking around at my desk there are a pile of fixed things.
I've had this little lamp since high school, but a few years ago its clamp broke. So I drilled a hole and stuck a bolt through it to hold it to the shelf, and it works like a charm.
The headpiece on my nifty cordless headset that I use for long chats with CatMan broke years ago, so I fixed it with my glue gun. It's no longer adjustable, but that's OK... I don't anticipate my head changing size any time soon!
And just a few days ago this antenna (that I got on FreeCycle) fell off the shelf and broke, so I super glued it back together... you can't actually see the repair since the glued part is inside... but it works great!
I'm not quite sure why I'm such a fix-it fanatic. I suppose it's partially because I don't like to spend money... At $8 a piece, patching bike tubes saves me real money over the long haul...
And it's partially to keep things out of landfills. The shade sail that I use for my deck awning still works perfectly even with this hole patched... after someone, ahem, got it tangled with the lawnmower blade and tore it.
And of course, there's the obvious sense of accomplishment. I'm no quilter, but recently I was able to patch a hole in this quilt that a friend made for me 20 years ago.
Then, there's the more, um... neurotic side of my fix-it tendencies. I just have a really, REALLY hard time letting go.
These cutoffs were once my favorite jeans. But after both knees wore out and got patched several times, I turned them into shorts.
But the rear end started to go a few summers ago, so I started adding patches. You can't really tell the degree of my patching craziness until you turn the things inside out:
I know I should probably just let them go... but they're soooo comfy and hey... they still work!
Of course... some things are just beyond repair, or at least they should be! This is a close-up shot of the wheel hub on the new-to-me 16 year old mountain bike that I bought on Craigslist.
Apparently some water got into the bearings and rusted them out. I probably should have just trashed it, but I managed to get it cleaned and re-greased to the point that it's still serviceable. I can probably get a few more years out of the thing before it absolutely has to be replaced.
On some level I think my fixing fanaticism is sort of crazy. I mean really... a whole new wheel for that bike would only cost $25 - I probably spent that much on just the tools to repair it, let alone my time... but now I know how to do it, so I can rebuild the hubs whenever I want to.
Plus... I dunno. The older I get, the more obvious it becomes to me that everything in this world of ours is temporary. Just take a look at my beloved 20 year old Birkenstocks... yup, they've seen better days.
But I just couldn't bear to get rid of them, so I bought some Shoe Goo and voila! I've got my birks back!
I know this will sound a little bit crazy, but every time I fix something, I feel a little bit like I've breathed new life into the world.
Like these fake Birkenstock sandals that I bought 20 years ago, but never wore much because they didn't quite fit right. I was on the verge of taking them off to the thrift store, when I finally realized that only real problem was that the straps were too loose. So I got out my drill and added some new holes so I could buckle them tighter, and now they fit perfectly!
Somehow, it's like with every patch that I sew, and every broken thing that I glue back together, I feel a bit like I am cheating death. So take that, grim reaper!
So tell me, does anybody else out there get a charge out of fixing things? What have you repaired lately?