Wipeout

Lesson for the day: low mechanical aptitude + poor near vision + unsteady hands = !good

It never rains in New Mexico. OK it very rarely rains in New Mexico. The Sun shines a lot. So when those rare rains come, those wiper blades are likely to be badly deteriorated. This happened to me, so I decided to change them. Because I rarely change wiper blades, I'm not good at it. Correction: i used to be not very good at it. Now I'm awful.

A trip to my WalMart and 20 bucks or so bought me spiffy new wipers.

Step one: remove old wipers. I remember there was some sort of tab thingy to be pushed, but couldn't find where to push.

Step zero: look up this junk in manual. Now if I could only figure out how to interpret this tiny but obscure drawing.

Step zero.5 Curse in frustration.

Step one': This appeared to help, since tab finally snapped, and wiper detached. Total elapsed time: 20 minutes.

Step two: Read direction for installation of new wiper. Directions consisted of tiny diagrams which appeared to show two human hands holding something like a wiper blade assembly. There was also helpful commentary in several languages, with stuff like "remove old wiper blade assembly," "detach connector," and "insert new wiper blade assembly."

Step two.5: Curse in frustration. Didn't work this time.

Step three. Get drink.

Step four: Figure out that I really should have just bought the blade part of the assembly, since new assemblies don't match car decor.

Step five. Replace old wiper blade assembly so I can drive back to Walmart.

Step five.4: Curse.

Step six: Break old wiper blade assembly connector.

Step six.5: You know the drill.

Step seven: It appears connector snaps back together. Fix.

Step .... Break connector in two more places. Those snap back together too.

Step ten. Apply first rule of mechanical technique. If it sticks, force it. Defective wiper is back on car. Better go get wiper blade, since it might rain next month.

UPDATE: Step Final: Watched expert do it. Secret: apply step ten.

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