Richard C. -
While you're recouperating, are you laying on a piece of cardboard?
Manuals -
Only a few "excuses" for not owning them (strictly tongue-in-cheek): illiteracy (not likely cuz ya managed to read this here forum), cheapness (perhaps ya might consider giving up that third case of beer or second carton of cigs a week til ya can afford one - besides, all hobbies have a cost, so get used to it), you're just one of those who reads all the books at Barnes & Noble but never buys any of them, or laziness.
I was a n00b once, too. First thing I did was buy the wide frame service manual. Only after following the manual did I find the need for a phone call to Hydro Harry to clear up something. So Charlie's right (don't let it go to yer head!) - read first, ask if it doesn't make sense.
I never worked on my car in high school without the apropriate Helm and Rochester books.
I could quickly mess up a $2M computer if I didn't RTFM first here at work.
BTW, RTFM, as a term, goes WAY back, it wasn't invented here or by me, but it sure fits the bill.
A related aside - there was an article this week about the Army. They have a maintenance publication that looks like a comic book. They found that soldiers wouldn't read it otherwise. Hmmm.
