Why do things have to be so difficult?

January 5 - changing windshield wipers

This is my picture from last Thursday, which was my day off for working this past weekend.  The weather was gorgeous and after running some errands, I remembered as I was pulling into the garage that I had bought new windshield wipers over a month ago which I kept forgetting about.  I realized that I really needed to take advantage of the nice weather and go ahead and change the wipers before I got to the point of really wretched wipers, freezing rain or snow, and trying to change them with gloves on (which is what I ended up doing last year!).

Now I have been replacing my own windshield wipers since I was in college, but with my swiss cheese memory, I can never remember from time to time exactly how it works.  I did buy the same brand as last time thinking that this should make the process a little easier.  So I started with the passenger side, opened the package, pulled out the little instruction paper and studied the paper and studied my wiper and studied the paper and studied the wiper and studied the paper and studied the wiper.  Flipped the wiper over, held down the little tab, popped the old wiper off, and slid the new wiper on.  Success!  I confidently moved over to the driver side, opened the package, pulled out the new wiper, briefly consulted the little paper, tried to flip the wiper over... and came to a screeching halt.  The wiper wouldn't flip.  I studied the paper, then studied the wiper, then studied the paper, then studied the wiper, tried to flip it again, studied the paper, studied the wiper, looked at the passenger side wiper, studied the package, tried to flip it again (and again and again, because you never know when it might just decide to work!), and collapsed across the hood of my car.

I am not a stupid person.  I pride myself on being able to problem-solve and work out complicated situations.  But the damn wiper wouldn't flip over!!!  I ended up breaking the old wiper apart, so that just the bracket was left attached to the arm and just yanking on it so hard that somehow I must have hit that magic angle and the whole thing slid out.  I was so shocked that I just stood there for a minute, and that's when I noticed that it was facing the wrong direction.  In some bizarre twist of auto mechanics, I had managed to install the bracket upside down last time!  The new one popped right on just like it should (right side up this time) like it was just mocking me.  Stupid windshield wipers.  Bah!  I know that I was out there for more than 45 minutes.  It was ridiculous.  Why do things have to be so difficult?