Man Pride – Fire!

Aha! Look what I’ve created. I have made fire.
– Tom Hanks, Castaway

Okay, so I didn’t “create” fire, but I feel the same beat-on-my-chest-stand-tall-I-am-man pride that Hanks exhibited for us. There is something about doing something yourself…fixing something that took a lot of work and you had to figure out on your own…it makes you feel important, proud.

The check engine light has been on in the car and the diagnostic codes said “Fuel too lean.” So, other than knowing  a sensor thought the fuel and oxygen mixture was not correct, the possibilities of causes were quite broad. Is the sensor bad, or is there in fact an issue with the oxgyen to fuel ratio? Well, I figured it out! (Okay, I snooped around the web for the same diagnostic codes, asked the friendly neighborhood autozone a couple of questions, and read about the workings of a combustion engine.) After poking around the engine, found a melted hose…

PCV System

…you know, it is hard to have the necessary vacuum with a melted elbow joint!

Aha! Look what I’ve fixed. I have fixed the PCV system!

Well, we will see if this was the only cause for the check engine light, but this needed to be fixed regardless…kind of an important part of the emissions system. Of course, I couldn’t simply replace the elbow joint, or the tubing for that matter. These are Ford exclusive parts…and it is one of those “kit” deals; nothing sold separately.

Blame Game

Surely I am not responsible…No, I am the victim!

I came across a good expression of the reality of humanity’s situation, despite our rigorous attempts to pass blame:
“We have conjured up all manner of devils responsible for our present discontent. It is the unchecked bureaucracy in government, it is the selfishness of multinational corporate giants, it is the failure of the schools to teach and the students to learn, it is overpopulation, it is wasteful extravagance, it is squandering our national resources, it is racism, it is capitalism, it is our material affluence, or if we want a convenient foreign devil, we can say it is communism. But when we scrape away the varnish of wealth, education, class, ethnic origin, parochial loyalties, we discover that however much we’ve changed the shape of man’s physical environment, man himself is still sinful, vain, greedy, ambitious, lustful, self-centered, unrepentant, and requiring of restraint.”
  — Barry M. Goldwater, With No Apologies

I am reminded that the Fall, from a Christian perspective, is one of the most significant events in human history. It constitutionally changed man, and we now suffer from total depravity.