Ken's Guide to Getting Your Spouse to Love Your IH (was RE: Good news)

[Farmer <pharmer@domain.elided>]

Ok,

Here's Ken's Guidelines to Getting Your Spouse to Love Your IH:

Make it reliable:  it can never breakdown while they drive it.
Resist the temptation to sabotage the "other" vehicles.

Make it attractive:  keep it as clean as possible, and then sell
them on the "inner beauty" thing.  This shouldn't be difficult
since they probably get into that if they've been around us very
long. ;-)  For those that don't get into "Inner Beauty Funky",
consider occasional work on cosmetics (rust, paint, dents) to
provide hope that it might one day look like other vehicles.

Invite her to hang out with a fun IH crowd (assuming you have
access to one): most IH folks are down to earth and pleasant.
Plus, there's nothing like hearing somebody say, "hey, nice
scout!".  It'll help them understand that there's an "in crowd"
that appreciates these treasures.  Note: sometimes a general
offroad club will serve this purpose.

Make it partially hers:  have her/(or him) help work out
restoration/modification priorities.  Actually trying to get
them to help do the work may be counter-productive, however.

Do fun things in the IH:  build associations of fun and
recreation around the IH.  You'll probably want to do really
miserable stuff in her car (go to the tax attorney, dentist,
etc).

Have her drive it offroad:  this could be the key.  If she
gets to drive it on some fun trails, she could become its
best friend!  Here's an example of this:  last year I bought
a Dewalt 12" compound sliding miter saw to build my deck with.
I then very cleverly had Jennifer do all the cutting.  Well,
a few months ago when some contractors offered her a really
good price for the saw (assuming that she didn't value it
anyway), she surprised them by refusing: she *loves* using
the saw!  Of course, if you're not the patient type you
might need to ride in a different vehicle during this particular
excercize.


Ken Farmer
1980 Scout II *his IH*
1974 Travelall *her IH*
1975 Travelall *her other IH*