Handy

No picture today . . .One thing Sally and I have been talking about is how we haven't included any "live" pictures lately--"live" meaning pictures that we take of the house, each other, our activities, etc. Its just that since school started, we have begun to move into a less "picturesque" kind of lifestyle. But that will change. We'll get some new pictures up there soon of all the projects we've got going--building coat racks, staining the exterior of the mud room, replacing the light post globe in the front yard, and putting up some moulding.

My chief weakness in life--and something that, consequently, I fear very much--is my inability to do normal "guy" things. I can lift heavy things. I can write beautiful songs. I can make people laugh and cry with my stories. I can cook delicious meals. But I am, under no circumstances, what you would call "handy" around the house. Since special education is, in fact, taking over my school (and the world, apparently), it suffices to say that, if tested, I would probably have a severe learning disability with visual-spacial relations and kinetic processes. I am totally serious--not trying to be funny. This is something that I struggle with daily.

I am exceptionally strong with my creative abilities, but ask me to make some mitre cuts in a piece of moulding, measure the perimeter of the room for sheet rock, or remove a rusty globe from a light post, and I have lots of trouble--it takes me a long time to process things. Its like I can't process "common sense" things--its weird. I've always been like this.

Having our own home has been an exceptional experience so far, both in the way we do not have to share walls with idiots, and in the way it forces me to develop the confidence I lack in learning how to be the "man" around the house. Luckily, I have a beautiful wife who is not only incredibly patient and willing to teach, but also brilliant at problem solving in her own right. She encourages me to learn the things I used to think I could not do, and now I find myself (WICKED SLOWLY) doing those things. I have fixed the "man's bathroom" toilet many times (not forgetting to laugh at how a principal working component is called a "ballcock"). I have done sheetrocking. I tried my hand at finish carpentry. I split and stack all our own wood. I "graded" many sections of perennial beds by the foundation that were collecting standing water when it rained. I have caulked and spackled and puttied and weather-proofed.I have re-insulated crawl spaces. I put up gutters and downspouts (which sucked). And today, I spent a half hour with a hacksaw cutting off a section of rusted out steel pipe so we could install a new globe on our light post.

I swear I dont say all these things to sound arrogant--far from that. I still am VERY amateur at "taking care of a house." But sometimes I think (and my dad reminds me) about how far I have come since I was a kid "holding the ladder" when my dad and I built a treehouse (about the only thing I COULD do). If you want further evidence of this, go visit my mom and ask her to show you pictures of me covering my books--it was a yearly tradition on the second or third day of school when I would sit on the kitchen floor, Shaw's bags and scissors by my side, and contemplate how IN THE WORLD I was going to cover my Spanish text book. I would usually go about 10 minutes before I started crying in frustration. Again, I am totally serious. I could not grasp the concept. But I have learned much in the two years we have lived here . . .and my confidence gets (a little bit) stronger each day. Thanks Sally Piles for putting up with me . . .