It’s no secret. I suck when it comes to being the in-house ‘handyman’.

In fact it’s a family-wide joke.

When my wife and moved into our home a couple of years ago, we didn’t have what you would call an inventory of tools. Our tools consisted of a couple of screwdrivers, hammers and maybe a wrench or two. And these very same tools we used interchangeably between our then apartment and our vehicles.

Oh wait, rewind. We also had a 6 volt battery-charged operated drill. It was the kind where you plugged the actual drill into an AC outlet. The ‘battery’ was permanently attached.

(Please keep your laughing to a low hum)

Now I used these tools for anything and everything that had to do with apartment living. Everything from hanging pictures on walls, to putting pieces of furniture together. (That lil’ drill came in handy sometimes)

When we moved into our home we found out the hard way how simple we’ve been living.

My in-laws donated their very-retired pool table. The only catch was actually transporting it to our home and figuring out how to get it down the basement. I’ll spare you the details and skip over the ‘hole –in-the-wall’ incident and cut to the chase. We needed to ‘break the pool table down’ into smaller parts.

Can I tell you,  I’ve never seen both my father and father-in-law laugh so hard when they asked for my drill.

‘”Hey, go get me your drill”. “We need to take this piece off”.

I politely handed him my awesome 6 volt drill.

They burst out into the most sonorous cackle of a laugh I have ever heard. In fact they laughed in unison.

“No, seriously, get me a real drill”

That was my ‘real’ drill. (At least up until that point in my life, that is what I considered to be a real drill)

Needless to say since that event, it’s always been a chuckling event whenever something breaks, or isn’t working as it should in our house. (FYI..I now own a 24V hammer drill that I use religiously)

Now let me clear the air here a bit. My father, has worked with his hands all his life. He has been a Heating & Cooling repairman all his life, something he learned in the Navy. He’s been in his trade longer than I’ve been breathing. When he was a kid he was taught at a young age how to change out tires on a car, or change the oil in a car, etc.

My father-in-law, almost a carbon-copy. He worked in the Steel Mill most of his life and now works Maintenance at another Steel-Mill type facility. He’s the go-to man when things break down. And yes he was taught at an early age how to do the same things my father learned.

Then there’s me.

None of the above. In fact I didn’t learn how to change the oil in my car until I was in my mid-twenties. LOL

My father wanted me to use my mind instead of relying on the skills of my hands. I love him for that, but some days it would have been nice to know some of the basics. LOL

I guess just like the rest of us, I’m learning as I go.

So the whole reason for my rant, is that our basement toilet was leaking. Not only was it leaking, but it wasn’t even flushing properly. So today, my wife (the boss) gave me the assignment to fix the damn toilet.

LOL.

I must admit, it wasn’t really all that hard. I had to simply buy the right parts in get them working properly. But, for me to do it on my own… without quitting, without having to call one of the ‘Dad’s, or worst yet, breaking the toilet and putting it out of service was what I considered to be a small personal accomplishment.

I patted myself on the back.. and bragged about it on Twitter as well.

If you’ve made it this far and read this whole blog, I thank you for listening (reading)

Carpe Diem