>>520950784
>I was born in 69
oh shit, nice.. I don't come here too much these days, but it's cool seeing other oldheads here from time to time. I mean, where else to really post online, after all lol
and yea I know what you mean about 9/11 and all that stuff. things were bad when it came to air travel after it (all the extra security shit) but overall it was eh. people who were heavily invested in the stock market got hit by the dotcom crash tho I guess. for me the 2008 crash was catastrophic because I was working on my phd at the time... and right into no job market lol. always tried to stay optimistic until the world shut down for covid, I lost my business, most friends, all that. everything is the real suck now, and it's not going to recover. covid finally broke my faith in humanity, and I'm never getting that back.
>especially when there was always a buddy that was a mechanic that could give advice
yea, exactly. I still have friends locally and we do shit together like work on vehicles, LAN party, all that, but even a lot of the local shops are run by people from out of town now... stuff has changed so much. and when I'm in a city for things, the people that run businesses or places are always changing. there's no trust anymore. but at least where I am people still know the neighbors, can ask around at the local coffee and donut shop for stuff.. familiar faces.
I seriously don't know how other people manage especially in higher density areas if they don't have a network already. find a mechanic through online reviews and some word of mouth.. ok.. but then they'll take you for a ride, go out of business or change hands... then have to establish rapport again... wtf lol
but digital searchable manuals are nice. probably the one nice thing about tech for vehicles now, along with sensors that throw codes. but even then, takes a bit of an older mindset to figure out if the problem is deeper. swap and replace shops that don't fix the root cause.