It can cause normal men to think they are Bob the Builder or Marty the Mechanic. I would like to blame this on TV with all the How-To Shows but I truly believe that it is inherent in us. We watch someone do something and something clicks as we think, "that don't look so hard,piece of cake"! Then after much labor and expense, we finally have some semblance of what we wanted. Do we learn from this? Oh no, we puff our chest and assume the Alpha postion and say, "See, I told you I could do it!"
That being said, I'm gonna relate some experiences of this life long affliction that seems to have no sign of remission. Please don't laugh too loudly or condemn me for I know we've all been there.
Signs of this affliction started at a very early age. I remember when, as a young Boy Scout, seeing plans for a Monkey Bridge and thought,I can do it; it's done by Scouts. So, I commenced to building one with the help of one of my sisters. It took most of the day and looked nothing like the one in the book, but in my eyes it was perfect. Down side, I nearly hit sister with hammer[I was cheating by that time trying to get it to stay up] and had pulled the clothes line pole loose in the ground[Hey I thought it would make a good anchor point].
I think my first serious attack came about age 15. I was driving a 54 Ford at the time and the water pump went out. Dad said he would help change out after he got home. I had watched him fix and work on engines as long as I could remember, so of course I thought, "I can do this". Well sir, I filled the radiator with water and drove to town, got a water pump and filled back up with water and drove back. Six hours later, I had the radiator out and had snapped two bolts inside the block. Took Dad a while to get it fixed,but he did. He said I tried and that was what counted, but the look in his eyes said something completely different.
Fast forwarding to present day, I'll skip over various project ranging from assemblin' furniture to installing laminate flooring throughout the house and get right to my latest effort. We had been having trouble with the kitchen faucet and we figgered a water line was pluggin up. Jane had been suffering with this for quite a while and we were sorta resigned to waiting till we could get a new line laid. Well, as fate would have it, a plumber came into store to have his rifle bore sighted. I was working on it and asked him bout it. He said it sounded to him like the mixer in the faucet might be obstructed and would work if I backflushed it. Never done this before, but it sounded easy so my next day off I tore into it. Did I mention the fact I waited till 3pm on a Sunday to do this? Or that we were in middle of cooking a meal for a friend's parents? As Jane watched on and offering to help with a look of resigned dread on her face, I fearlessly tore into it.Wellsir, I flushed the lines like I'd been doing it forever, and backflushed the faucet then hooked 'er back up and turned it on. Nothing, not a drop. what had been a reduced flow was now completely plugged.
So, now here we are, dirty dishes and only place to wash them is in the bathroom. We get cooking done, Jane washes dishes in the bathroom sink and was really cool about it for the most part. We run the food out to our friend's parents, then stop by Lowe's to get a new faucet, which I installed and finally got right after a couple tries. Because of the thickness of countertops, I had to invert the nuts to have enough threads to tighten hoses I discovered this after turning water on. But I have to admit, it worked and the smile on Jane's face at having a functioning faucet was worth it all.
Well, there you have it.. my testimony and in closing I just have this to say..
Hi, my name is Ed and I'm a "fixaholic"
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