I Must Have OCD
Published August 16th, 2007 in It's Really Just All About Me....I think I might have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder problems. I’m not a full-blown OCD’er… I think it’s because I’m too lazy to be that obsessed. I do have a friend worse than me. She doesn’t drink coffee; she drinks Mountain Dew instead — she’s afraid she’ll leave the coffee pot on and have to drive back to her house four or five times in a row to make sure it’s off.
Like I said, I’m not that bad… I gots to have my coffee.
But I can get seriously caught up in shit. And when I’m done with whatever it was that I was obsessed with? I’ve got to find something new to go all medieval on. I’ll tackle whatever task I think is important and I will do that task to exclusion of all else. It’s usually not too much of a problem but my new obsession is getting ridiculous.
For a while, I was flinging all my sticky creative juices at my latest screenplay re-write. Before that, I went a bit apeshit over my bathroom remodel. But my latest compulsion is driving me nuts. As soon as that script was done, I had this huge void where I didn’t want to be creative but still wanted to fix something. I always have to be fixing something - a script, the toaster, a short film, my life… something.
This time — my poor, lonely, worn-out Jeep Grand Cherokee was the target. I’m sure I heard it whimper a bit as I rushed at with my toolbox. But is it such a bad idea for me to be obsessed with fixing up my truck? Oh, I’ve got a mother of a list of why it’s totally stupid for me to be going crazy right now.
First, the truck is outdoors. It’s summertime. In. California. It was 102 degrees here yesterday. I was lying on the driveway, at 7 o’clock at night, tearing out my exhaust system and my back was on freaking fire. The heat gets soaked up all day long and then starts to release at night.
Next, fixing a car is never cheap. Ever. If you just walk by your car with your wallet or purse open, you’ll see dollar bills fly out and stick to the side of your vehicle. Guaranteed. I’ve got a child on the way and here I am stuffing hundreds of dollars into a truck that is nearly ten years old.
Finally, I don’t even drive the damn thing! Now that I take L.A. Mommy to the train station and L.A. Toddler to school, I have access to her car. Or I usually ride my motorcycle nearly everywhere I go. Which saves me a ton on gas and it gets me anywhere in town faster than anybody else.
And, yet… I can’t stop. To date, I’ve washed the engine, changed the oil, rebuilt the entire front-end body work, swapped in new brake pads and rotors, put in new rear shocks, changed the O2 sensor, and I’m in the middle of putting in a new exhaust system. I’ll hopefully have that done today or tomorrow, if my new muffler and tail pipes show up via the UPS man…
This has been over the last 3 weekends. I was out there last night trying putting on a catalytic converter but couldn’t cut off an old section of pipe. I waited for my neighbor to get home so I could borrow a saw, but he ran late. So, instead of going inside and getting out of the heat… I put on the rear shocks. I even had to run a light out to put under the car, just so I could see what I was doing.
My neighbor came over around ten to drop off the saw (I was so anal, I left a note on his door to bring it over… “whenever!”) and he laughed at me. He said, “It’s great you’re in such a hurry to finish up your Jeep… so that it can sit in the driveway all day.”
It was at that moment that I realized my OCD was not only still present, it might be getting worse!
Ohmygod, I’m going to be one of those freaks who has to count all the paper clips in the box, over-and-over, so that I know exactly how many there are! My kids will have to come to the “hospital” to visit “Dear Old Dad” and wipe the drool from my lips as I mutter “47, 47, 47, 47″ until it’s almost “Lights Out” and “Visiting Hours” are over!
Put down the tools, Tim. Step away from the car. Or we’re going to have to medicate you…
I’m like you - mention a new project and I want to have it done by…yesterday.
But I will add fuel to the fire — the jeep is in great shape. I never would have guessed it was 10 years old. Props to you for keeping it up! But I think I hear it calling for a wax…
I wish I had that problem, at least with my cars. I tend to let them rot until the very last second and then rush them to the emergency mechanic. “Can you fix it by tomorrow morning? We’re taking a cross-continental trip to Chile at 6 a.m.”
Nah, you’re just a guy and his car in the summertime. Primal scene.
This means that you should soon be ready to come out here and do the same to my truck, right?
Nothing to worry about, those are all normal behaviors for a man going through PDS: Pregnant Daddy Syndrome. They should clear up in less than 40 weeks.
We used to have a Jeep Cherokee back when my hubby still worked on cars. He loved the car, hated working on it. Evidently just getting the oil pan off included multiple bolt sizes…
You’re a creative dude, you need a focus for that energy. Don’t worry about the psychatric definitions!
Aww…honey. You’re nesting! You did the same thing when I was pregnant with LA Toddler - you just don’t remember. (He decided it was high time to get his master’s degree. Classes started the week before I gave birth.)
Now how about you obsess over massaging my aching back?
I’m carrying your zepellin around, ya know!
Strangely enough, supermum’s scheduled to give birth around the time I get get right into my next master’s assessment. Maybe there really is some guy thing going on here…
I used to think I had OCD. But then I attended an actual OCD support group. (You see, I was writing a screenplay with a character who had all kinds of OCD and stuff, so I wanted it to be accurate.) Except that people with OCD, at least the ones I met in the group, were really sick. It’s not fun. Now I know I don’t have it. Maybe try going to a group and see what you think about your situation then.
So yer handy with the tools, eh?
That’s kinda cute.
Hey, at least you’re doing something! And LA Mommy seems to be good with it. (You did get around to giving her that back massage, right!?! Priorities, Tim.)
Uh…OCD isn’t a bad thing. Right? Right? It’s not, right?
Awww…LA Mommy thinks you’re nesting! Just make sure your obsession/nesting’s satisfied by the time LA Baby arrives.
Then you can happily obsess with diaper duty.
Weird….We’ve got the exact same car — except my problems were in Feb. and I still don’t know how to open the freakin’ hood right.
But you, with your fancy tools and rebuilding engines….next time my Jeep stops, I’m having it towed to your house…
Hmm, Maybe not so much OCD as nesting?
That’s not OCD. OCD is when you get out of your car in the morning to make sure you locked the house and turned off the iron… three times. Not that I know anyone like that.
Doesn’t sound very OCD to me. Now… I am totally OCD when it comes to my pantry and decorating the house. I’m like… Sleeping with the Enemy OCD. Everything must be lined up and straight/even. There is a shelf in my newly decorated guest bathroom that I have taken the glass out of because it was not centered properly above the toilet. All that is there now is the metal frame… sitting there… longing for its shelf. And of course we can’t move it because we drilled screws through the wall paper. Ah well… great blog you have here!