This morning while reading the news I read the article about Niko Alm who won the right to wear a pasta colander on his head for his driving license. I had to laugh but not for the reasons you may think. The pictures brought back on kinds of memories of my child hood. I grew up a military brat and we moved quite frequently. A lot of times we did not live near the base. My mother did not drive until I was older and so I spent a great deal of time by myself and entertaining myself.
I had a great imagination and used to spend a great deal of time reading. I would recreate the scenes from the book I had read. I could make a castle with two chairs and a blanket on a cold and wet afternoon. A spaghetti colander hat, the tube from a row of paper and my fort was now a viking ship and I was out exploring the seven seas. In my colander I could explore all parts of history and new places in the world. Later when we returned from living overseas, my colander was then turned into spaceship headgear.
Looking back I think it my imagination and entertaining myself that has helped me in my career. I have always had a love for building and creating things. All my life I have had a knack for being able to fix things. Actually it is being able to see how things work or operate and once I know how it operates I can fix it. Many a day and night I have spent repairing appliances and other items for people either in person or walking them through how to repair it on the phone. Mostly because I can not stand to see people being taken advantage of, and I have seen that from repairman quite a few times. Not that they are dishonest but bad troubleshooters, and someone ends up paying for the parts. I have always been able to look at objects and see what it can be or the potential it may have if reconstructed differently. Many times I have seen something in the junk pile only to check it out and find the repair is minor. I got a moped that way, that someone had thrown out as unrepairable. $20.00 later and the cost to transfer the title I had a fully operational moped. I have also gotten computers and vehicles that way. To think it all started with a stainless steel colander.
