The day two old boating pals realize they've become two old drifty/dozy boating pals

[harringtondav]

I recently helped my long time boating pal Tom do a long overdue replacement of his Alpha II lower shift cable in the parking lot of his marina.

Teamwork. I removed the trim senders and broke loose the bell housing pivot pins while he disconnected the cable from the shift plate. Outdrive off and bell housing pushed aside. He worked on removing the shift cable bellows and I climbed inside to prepare the cable for a pull out.

Hmm? The cable's plastic eye sleeve's set screws looked like flat rivet heads. WTF? He and I worked to pick them out, punch them out. Fail. I guessed his older Alpha II had a different style cable than I'd pulled/changed at least five times prior. So I cut off the plastic eye sleeve. We went down back and tried to pull the cable out. Nope.

I climbed back in to see what was up. Then I noticed the lower shift cable was still attached to the shift plate. I had just destroyed his perfectly good upper shift cable. Tom laughed it off.

We were both culpable. Tom removed the wrong cable, I didn't notice and destroyed it. My dead Pa in Law liked to say "It's hell growing old". Yep. Embarrassing too.

 

[MRS]

Yup my old friend been gone a few years now was a old school tool maker use to sharpen all my drill bits on a grinding wheel for me would watch me do things. When I would get frustrated he would say you know you are smarter then that nut
or bolt that I was trying to get off or put on. Makes me slow down now and take a breath before caring on but I still screw stuff up every now and then.:lemo: