Fussing & Finagling

 

In some circles, the word finagle suggests "dishonesty".  However, I am not using the term in that manner today in this writing.  Here today, I am using the term "finagle" to be a facet of having to repair, reshape, resize, or renew something that has broken so that it can be once again of use.  In this usage, finagle is the PROCESS of getting the broken pieces to once again be whole or at least of service. Some may say I should use "refurbish" but I would disagree in that "refurbish" is the ACT or ACTIONS of repair, whereas FINAGLING is the process in figuring out HOW to get the broken again whole.   

After visiting the lumber/hardware store.... when I finally arrived home around 6:30pm, I began the process of trying to trying to cobble together some sort of fix for the damnable broken beast that is my treadmill.  My wife was a tad aggravated about my having to spend a lot of the evening working in the basement in this attempted repair... but overall she was very understanding, knowing how I need a place to run in the winter that is safe.  Thus far I have:

• dismantled (slowly and carefully) the myriad of screws, wires, various plastic pieces, etc. from the broken metal arm of the beast, so that if my plan is successful, I may be able to attach this arm to the wooden support I am crafting.
• I have cut and crafted the wooden support and attached the appropriate braces (I hope) to this support.

All of the above does not sound like a helluva lot of progress, but it took damn near 3 hours to accomplish.  By 9:30, I knew I would not finish, so I called it a day, and went upstairs to eat and TRY to relax while watching a bit of television with my wife.    

Fussing and finagling with things is something I have done my whole life.  I have *usually* liked trying to repair, renew, and sometimes even improve or embellish things.  But, I do not really enjoy it so much when there is a looming deadline (the NEED TO RUN) nor when I am in an already extremely busy/hectic time. 

And, I can tell you trying to do this fussing and finagling WITHOUT a pipe is really quite difficult! When I am not stressed, fussing and finagling is something I am pretty good at, and I remember a lot of hours spent at various tasks of this sort (including my instrument rebuilds) where I would patiently, quietly, and contentedly fuss, massage, and get all sorts of pieces of various things to fit back together, or to fit together in a better way, or to repair something, etc..... always with a pipe between my chompers.  I think the pipe helped me to be calm and focused, helped me to be more thoughtful in how to finesse the challenge into some sort of workable solution, and.... of course tasted wonderful, pleasantly massaged my neurons, and felt for me to be such an utterly natural way to be and behave.

Now, I am packing it in for the day at the U.  I have to try to get home as quickly as I can so I can continue to try to get this contraption back up to snuff!  Please wish me well.  I NEED to try to get this done tonight!  I am already 10 miles behind where I SHOULD BE in terms of my running for the week.  If I cannot get it back to functionality, I will have failed in my running effort.  I missed running this morning.  I felt sluggish and tired most of the morning.   

PipeTobacco