Gremlins

I thought I would take a moment to talk about gremlins. They live in every old piece of machinery, cars included. Today mine were feasting on my turn signals. Hand signals in freezing weather aren't very much fun at all.
Today, for the very first time and with my mechanics help and guidance I adjusted my valves to their proper .006 setting. It was fun, can't wait to do it again as a matter of fact. But when I left I found my turn signals were not indicating.
So I returned to Curt's Auto Care, and in the parking lot, figured out how the wiring works. I'm sick of just being a "I don't know what's going on!" type of person. Thank goodness for How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir. It comes highly recommended. Nothing seemed amiss, I pulled a few wires, checked the connections, all looked fine. Walked in, told him I'd drop it off on Monday, and hand signaled my way home. When I arrived home, they worked fine. I have no idea why. It just happened. And we get to one of the many joys of old iron. There is something magical about the way it breaks down. One moment life is good. Then in a heartbeat it can change drastically and always for the worst. Fix a part, the one right next to it will fail for no reason at all, and the one next to that just to spite you.
You can tell a fellow member by how many nervous ticks they have. Always living in fear of the next major breakdown. Afraid to leave the house without duct tape, electrical tape, masking tape, wires, brushes, valve seals, oil, fuses, flares, GPS, rope, MRE's, a donkey, voodoo priestess and a cat. And it's not just cars, there is a certain CMO of a railroad I know that always seems looking over his shoulder should the locomotive just up and attack him for no reason other then it's a Friday.
But if you excuse me, the cat is currently sick and needs to go the vet. The donkey is fine.