So today my car battery died, couldn’t even be revived with a jump. I was able to walk to an auto store to get tools and a new battery (damn that mfer was heavier than I expected). I had never had to replace my own car battery before.

I screwed the fastener nuts the wrong way for like 5 minutes, cut my hand, and ultimately accidentally crossed the positive and negative terminals with a wrench that exploded in sparks. I don’t even know what stopped me from being electrocuted but I didn’t feel a thing.

While I’m happy I was able to take care of it myself and will be able to in the future, I also feel like such a dunce for not knowing wtf I was doing and almost shocking myself

kitty-birthday-sad

  • tactical_trans_karen [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    24·
    3 days ago

    Comrade, I’m going to assume you’re young. I’m not. But I can tell you as the handiest person I know, I got here because I never stop fucking around with things over the years. Some of my tools have chunks melted out of them from accidentally shorting a car battery. I’ve skinned my knuckles, stabbed, electrocuted, burnt, cut, glued, bumped, and bruised myself, and I expect I’ll do it again some day but hopefully less often. The difference between us is time spent being stubborn about wanting to know how things work and a lot of times needing to save money. Don’t get down on yourself, you changed your battery and that’s more than many people will do.

    Keep fiddling with things, you’ll get there. But also, take your time to think through hazards, it makes it a lot easier. Don’t ever rush handy/repair/maintenance work.