Thread: In Control, Of Nothing,,,,,,,

Confucious say: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

For the most part, I'm not a hard headed individual. And I don't always have to learn everything the hard way.....for the most part. Growing up my father had an explosive and violent temper. I think he always envisioned himself as a handy individual but the rest of the family knew better. I recall entire weekends ruined by a simple leak under the sink. He'd insist on trying to fix it himself. Taking it apart was easy enough so putting it back together couldn't be too tough right? That's when things always got interesting. The first step in any home improvement project was to light a cigarette. It was imperative that the smoke forced on eye shut during the entire process. Then the first of the swearing would begin. It would start slowly with a few run of the mill "mother f'ers". Then things would become more graphic and focused, blaming everyone on the planet for making his life a demonstration in misery. Throughout the process there would be several trips to the hardware store by my mother with bent up plumbing parts that he had destroyed in the course of "fixing" things. The whole family would be held hostage while he lost his senses. God forbid that you provided contrast to his misery during these lost weekends. The whole thing would end with a Sunday night call to a plumber, paying him twice as much for coming out on a Sunday night. After watching this for most of my childhood, I grew up honest about my inability to do any home improvements and act accordingly.

Kind of related to this.

You decide to do a home installation, say a new toilet now what's easier than that right? You go to Home depot and they wheel out a "wall" with the fittings and in 10 minutes the guy installs the thing without breaking a sweat.

So you get the new toilet home and the first thing you realize is the fittings are near an L shaped wall and unless you are the indian rubber man there is no way to get close to the area. You have to contort yourself to get into a position to just do it by feel without being able to see what you are doing. This is just to uninstall the old one. So you get the old toilet off and you find the waste pipe coming up from the ground is non standard and it mounted crooked and the wax seal doesn't want to seal so now it's back to the store to find a seal to fit which they don't have in stock so it's off to a speciality supply house closed on the weekend and the old seal is self destructed so you can't put the old toilet back on and then when you get the part you need to get the indian rubber man in to get the fittings on.

Oh and did I tell you the supply pipe doesn't close completely so now you have no water in the house at all and the fitting is frozen on (gee that didn't happen in the store). Of course your wife was planning on entertaining friends that evening. So now you're personna non grata in yer own house.

Of course this is fiction it would never really happen right?

Reminds me, summer just gone we took the dog and a couple of grandchildren down the river for a swim. Didn't even reach the edge of the river and I dropped my wife's camera. I turned it on and it threw an error code which basically translated to "you dropped me in the sand, fool". Well we got home, I dug out my set of small screwdrivers and proceeded to "fix" the problem. My wife walked passed and without missing a beat said to me "Oh neat, l am getting a new camera"....Hate it when she's right.

You know I resemble this post. I have the exact same luck. If I could just find someone to pass on all my advise to.
Thank God my Dad is still with me, and I have learned to ask him how he would approach ALL problems.
Dad says, "Usually its the simple fix first. But when in doubt tear it out."
Followed by "you will have no problem the next time this happens."
Oh how I feel your pain

One of my favorite quotes from a great book:

“Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn

It says to me that I cannot control any experience, and to try and do that, most likely things won't work out. Reminds me of learning to hone...

The 2 golden rules I live by when doing it myself is " Don't ever let a project know your mad." "Don't ever let a machine know your in a hurry."

2 things will happen if you do. The job will either double in size or time. Or you get hurt.

I broke both of those rules,,,

I do not know why but his story reminds me of time I was helping my father cut down a little under a half acre of trees. It was a project he worked on over some months during the fall. He was a farmer so he had a lot of tools at his disposal, including my granddad's dump truck. My grandad restored it, an old International, though I cannot remember the year. Anyway, we were loading the timber on the truck to take to the mill. We had been doing it all week without any problems. Of course, something finally did go wrong. My dad parked the truck facing down an incline, either the brakes gave or he forgot to put them on. Regardless, the truck went speeding down the hill face first into an oak. I will never forget the look on my dad's face. Luckily the truck walked away with some superficial damage. I am just glad I was not around when he told my grandad.

Originally Posted by Phrank

One of my favorite quotes from a great book:
“Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn
It says to me that I cannot control any experience, and to try and do that, most likely things won't work out. Reminds me of learning to hone...

My dad had a similar statement...Sh!t happens! And he was a craftsman of the old school at anything he did. That and a department manager at a large manufacturing company...I was lucky! Oh yes, he did have a temper after a week of work at the job! He spent a lot of his life doing for others and I kinda got the idea from him!

Yup the stuff do come in threes, and most often two are good when you look back on the fiasco.
I have a list of great persons to call to get anything repaired any time. Worth the money!!
Any thing can and often does go wrong. But, can be fixed!
YMMV
~Richard