Comment Re:How is that supposed to work? (Score 1) 131
Around the second or third time I took apart my dad's wind-up alarm clock (at age 6 or so, the putting back together was well above any competence level I had). After buying a new clock to replace the last clock found in pieces, my dad introduced me to model making kits. Sometimes we'd work together, sometimes not. I do remember it being fun and focused my attention for hours, even if the results were gluey messes with the odd missing part. Model making saved any number of clocks and other household appliances. And peace in the family.
A neighbor down the street, a retired gentleman and a true master model builder, helped me learn patience and technique (where's the glue oozing out? where's the seams? you paint the thing and put it on a display stand?). Too bad that the last real hobby shop in my neck of the woods (south suburbs of Chicago) went out of business about fifteen years ago. No doubt stuff can be found online, but that's not nearly as fun as wandering through a hobby shop. Now that I have the time it would be fun to put together a model again.
I was lucky enough during a nearly forty-year career in industry to be able to work with tools and instruments; even though I held a variety of increasingly higher technical management positions the bosses let me work with my hands; so did the Union guys. And to think it started with one pissed off dad holding a shoe box of alarm clock parts.