I am becoming quite the handywoman around my house..being single has been frustrating at times because there is no helper. No one to bounce decisions off of. No one to FIX things when they break. I have learned that I can fix most things around the house if I take time to figure it out. Its less expensive than calling in a handyman every time something goes wrong (daily!) and I am learning a lot along the way. (wish I had stock in duct tape…the single woman’s best friend). You can’t just call a repairman for every little thing. For one thing it costs money and for another if it turns out to be something stupid (like the tv is just unplugged and that’s why its not working)…you look stupid.
Sometimes it seems the tiniest thing causes the biggest problem. My new $85 cpap mask is now duct taped making me even more hideous looking when I sleep. I figure that’s not a bad thing because if someone broke into my house they would definitely be scared off at the sight of me. My yorkie is afraid of me. He stopped sleeping on the bed about the time I got my CPAP machine. The tiniest little plastic tab broke off where the elbow joint connects to the mask. I can go online and order just the little round thing that has the plastic tab in it but just that little part is $45. Very frustrating to say the least.
I had a repairman come out because my tub was not draining properly and I was spending a fortune in drano. Turns out the little valve thing that goes up and down to keep the water in when you want to bathe instead of shower had a tiny little metal piece break off that kept it from fully opening . The replacement part cost about $2 but the service call was $50. I probably could have figured out a way to duct tape the valve open but the plumber was already there.
It usually is the little things. The chain inside the toilet tank breaks. (rigged that with a paperclip). The screw that holds the outside faucet handle strips out and your water won’t turn off, the rubber thing that keeps your glasses from digging into your nose breaks off (super glue). The little turn screw thing that keeps the a/c filter thing closed strips out. I now have mine duct taped closed. Very attractive . At least they make different colored duct tapes now which allows me to color coordinate my fix it projects.
When my riding mower had a flat tire last summer, I cussed it, examined it, cussed some more and finally decided Yea, I think I can change that. I got the jack from my car and proceeded to jack up the lawn mower and take off the tire. The tire came off just fine and I loaded it into my trunk and took it to have it fixed. When I arrived back home with the tire I noticed this small little e shaped piece of metal lying on the patio where I had taken off the tire. It was so small that I decided that even if it had come from the tire change it couldn’t be important so I did what anyone would do. I threw it over the fence. I put the tire back on the axle and put this little plastic rubber cup thing back in place.
I did stop to think for a second that there should be something besides that little plastic cover thing holding this tire in place but since I’m not very good at science or anything mechanical I made the assumption (wrongly) that it must be held on by gravity or something like that. I didn’t mow that day because frankly, just removing the tire, taking it to be fixed and putting it back on had used up all of my available patience for the day.
The next day, I go out to mow and the tire on the other side is flat. I cussed it, examined it, cussed it some more and having had some experience in this area, repeated the process from the day before. It felt a little like that movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray keeps doing the same thing over and over. This time when I removed the tire, I saw the little round thing that looked like a metal e was on the outside of the tire as it fits onto the axle. So while I knew now where it went, I still went with the theory that something that small couldn’t be important and chunked it over the fence too.
Once the tire was fixed and back in place I proceeded to mow the lawn. Now let me say here that I am a SPEED DEMON on a riding lawn mower. I push that baby to the max. So I’m tooling across the yard at maximum speed and the wheel falls off, digging the axle into the ground and coming close to throwing me over the top. When I get off and take a look, I realize that I am going to have to get the jack out to raise the mower enough to dig the axle out of the ground. I get out my jack, jack up the frame to the very last notch and the axle is still in the ground. That sucker went in deep!
Next, handywoman that I am, I go to the garage, find a shovel and shovel the dirt and grass from around the axle to get it unstuck from the ground and start over with the jack, placing it in a location that might provide more height fully extended. Keep in mind that it is about 100 degrees outside and I am sweating profusely from the effort. Finally, I get the axle up, the tire back on and put the little rubber cup thing back in place. Onward. I get on, take off again at excessive speed , tooling across the yard the opposite direction and it happens again, only on the other side.
I get off, scream profanities that I didn’t even realize I knew at the mower. I am cussing my ex-husband even though its been 10 years because if he hadn’t divorced me I wouldn’t be changing a mower tire! At this point, I hear a voice say Excuse me ma’am . I look over to see my new neighbor’s head sticking over the fence. What? I say in a very nasty tone. “Well I was wondering if you could keep it down as I have children back here”. Busted! I agree to keep my frustration to myself and repeat the process from before. Jack, shovel, tire on, replace rubber cap and proceed to mow. This time I take it a little slower and as the wheel wobbles to and fro and falls off again I get off the mower, go into the house and cry!
The next day, I ask a man at work if the little thing that looks like a c with at tooth is important. He looks at me and says “ the e clip? duh, like what else do you think holds the wheel on, that rubber cap? Just wondering I say. No reason really. I go to the phone book, call the mower repair shop and tell them I need something called an e clip and I need 2 of them.
And the moral of the story? Hire out your lawn care…..ok, really the actual moral of the story is just because something is small doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Live and learn.
Epilogue: I got rid of the riding mower, hired a teenager to mow my lawn and am officially retired from lawn care.
You might have done well to ask that neighbor to return those clips you tossed over into his yard. But that would bring us back to the looking stupid part, again. Wouldn't it? ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder of the importance of little things. Thanks, too, for the laugh. . .and the trip down memory lane (because we've all thrown away those little clips).
expensive little things too. I think it was like $8 for 2 of them. Probably should have tried to get them back but the fence I threw them over backs up into a vacant overgrown lot. Needle in a haystack kind of search.
ReplyDelete