Nothing Can Be Easy Anymore

The good ole days, something that I have gotten into a rut proclaiming.  I do believe I do sound like an angry old man.  But I like to think when I make the declaration of "Back when I was young..." or "In the good old days" I put some merit behind it, that yes, indeed, things were a bit better when it was like that...

Like for instance being able to work on your own vehicle.  This is a prime example of what I am saying.  Yes, cars are nicer these days, more fuel efficient and blah, blah, blah.  But was the trade off for better (and of course that is purely a subjective view) vehicles was that the common person could no longer do any maintenance or minor repairs on their vehicle ever again?

Case and point...my wife's car is a 1995 Cavalier ... yes, it is that old.  She has owned it since new and as a person could imagine after 16 years the car is beginning to need some maintenance and, as a matter of fact, her blower motor just went out.  I had changed the blower motor on my Blazer in the 90's and in a couple of other vehicles...fairly simple...but when I tried to find the blower motor for her car, I couldn't find it...no worries, went online and not only did I find the location but also a video that showed how to change the blower motor...it is literally 5 screws that need to take out, replace the blower motor and screw back in...done and done.

After watching the video, which was all of 6 minutes in length, I figured it MAY take me upwards of 15 minutes because I like to lollygag...of course this was my first mistake...thinking this would only take 15 minutes.  So I was going to be the nice guy and change the blower motor out over my lunch break and my wife would be able to go to work in the afternoon with heat again, something she hasn't had since last week.  Everything was going as planned, first 2 screws out to remove the under dash cover and there's the blower motor, just 3 screws holding it up, should be a piece of cake...WRONG!  Sure, there is one screw that is very accessible and offers no problems but the other 2 screws are placed right up against the front firewall and with the blower motor assembly it is nearly impossible to get a wrench into that location.  After being flipped upside down in her car, ruining a pair of pants and shirt and spending an hour and half, I was able to finally get the blower motor removed.  After trying for another thirty minutes I decided to give up in disgust as I was unable to even get the two difficult screws to find their post to even get a couple of threads turned in.

I could not believe this entire ordeal.  Am I that completely inept that I can't remove 5 screws and put a new blower motor in in under 2 hours?  Now I know I am probably lacking some tool or device that would help me in this endeavor but that almost goes hand-in-hand with my original gripe of how come nothing can be easy anymore or that you don't have to go out and buy a new tool to do your task, with of course the tool costing more than the part you are trying to replace in the first place?


Gone is the time when a person could pack their toolbox and if your vehicle broke down alongside the road you would have a good chance of repairing your vehicle.  Changing even light bulbs on today's vehicles can oftentimes be a chore when, at one time, it wouldn't take a person 5 minutes to change. It is getting completely ridiculous.


I really should have had a audio recorder going as I was attempting to do this task and post the audio, which would have been 90 minutes of f bombs and JESUS CHRIST!  Even I was laughing at myself and how silly this chore was becoming ... but laughing out of complete frustration because this task defeated me and was all of 5 screws...just take out 5 f'ing screws, replace motor and re-secure with the screws...sounds so easy doesn't it?