Think Before You Speak

I have been asked many stupid questions in my life. Many of them about stuff that doesn’t even exist. A lot of them were about automotive things. Some of the questions people have asked me about automotive made me want to curb stomp them.

I had somebody ask me one time how to change their blinker fluid in a Dodge Duramax. There are a couple things wrong with that sentence. First of all blinker fluid doesn’t exist and dodge does not have a Duramax engine in it, it has a Cummins. As you probably know this person knows absolutely nothing about anything to do with automotive. I couldn’t even imagine having a customer coming into my shop and asking me to change their blinker fluid. First I would try and hold back from bursting out laughing. Then I would tell them I can do it but it would cost them like 200 dollars because I have to use a special and very expensive tool. Even though I would just do nothing.

Another curb stomp worthy question I have had asked was when my friend Josh was talking about exhaust systems. My friend Isaac’s truck was straight piped which means it is just a big pipe from the motor back, no muffler or catalytic converter. Josh goes up to the truck and looks under it and says “I thought it was straight piped”, Isaac says “it is” then josh proceeds to say “No it isn’t there is a bend right here”. We started laughing because that was probably one of the dumbest questions he could have asked. When I was doing a lot of work to my old truck I has to change that Catalytic converter(s). A lot of people call them “cats” for short. It was just me and him home at the time and I was going out to the garage to start replacing them and as I walked out the door I said “Colby I am going to change the cats in my truck!” Just to let him know where I was going if he needed something. He then came out of his room and asked me “Why are there cats in your truck?” I hit my hand on my forehead and started laughing, I said “Colby I meant the catalytic converters, it is a part of my exhaust”. He said “ooh”. I still make fun of him to this day for saying that. I really wish that people would get educated on the topic they are trying to talk about before they open their mouths because in the end they just look really stupid.

There was one time when I had someone ask me why there was a Sabattus street in Lewiston. A stupid question that I saw somebody ask was when Uncle Si from duck dynasty asked “What is Victoria’s Secret?” Uncle Si is an older guy he is in his mid-late 70’s and I thought it was funny that he even knew what Victoria secret was. I was sitting in my room laughing while watching that and my brother came in from the next room and asked me what the heck I was laughing at. Me and Isaac were at Josh’s house one time and Josh brought his shotgun gun out for target practice. Isaac wants to start collecting guns and he offered to buy Josh’s gun. Josh said “No I need it for turkey hunting.” Me and Isaac asked him a little later on if he hunts and Josh said “No I don’t like hunting anymore.” Which completely counteracts what he had said ten minutes earlier about why he wouldn’t sell his gun. It may not have been a question but it was a pretty stupid statement. I will admit I have asked some stupid questions in my life but I try to think about it before I ask. I also don’t try and act like I know what I am talking about even though I have no idea about that topic. I have asked some stupid questions about automotives as I learned over the years. One time I asked “Do you take the oil pan off to change the oil?”. Everybody should know that you don’t have to take the oil pan off to change the oil, but I was a lot younger and didn’t know much about working on cars.

A piece of advice from me is if you are going to ask a question about a topic you know nothing about, try and do some research first. In the end you will almost always look like an idiot.