Handy Man

It's been a handy few days for me. I'm not finished with my handiness yet, but I'm celebrating while I still can. Yesterday I caused a small explosion in my water heater, but today I'm on top of the world again. Tomorrow just might be tire swing day.

The water heater, you see, didn't need a new thermocouple. I couldn't have replaced it anyway because it was all new-fangled. The plumber said the problem was simply a design flaw, although I'm lucky to have the one I have because everyone else did it worse. The solution? Clean it more often (which we really shouldn't have to do more than twice each year.) The explosion? It was just a little gas build up that sent me flying while I was, for the fortieth time in a week, relighting the pilot that was slowly suffocating under the duress of the (again new-fangled) sealed burner chamber. Good thing I was flying of my own accord, don't you think? Didn't even singe my eyebrows. You might say it was all bang and no bite. You also might say I'm a lucky man; yes, say that.

The real victory came tonight when, in under five minutes, I replaced the headlight of my sad little car. Now, you may all scoff at so simple an accomplishment, but it's important to understand that:

1. I am an artist, and as such I do not fix things, I create them.
2. I don't have a handy attitude; I thoroughly believe that others, more gifted and mechanical than I, are more than willing to fix my little problems and take the extra money it costs to have them perform these tasks for me. I mean nothing demeaning by it; I really appreciate that there's someone to do what I, on a normal basis, cannot.
3. I don't mind paying someone else to make my life easier. That may sound ridiculous and pompous, but I put it in the same category as air conditioning: things I could do without but pay extra so I can choose not to.

But today I defied myself, shifted my paradigm, if you will, and took on a small task, spent $5 on the new light (should've sprung for the pricy, blue-light halogens, don't you think?) and put it in myself. I even maneuvered around the strangely designed retainer spring on the lamp. I'd have taken photos, but Liz took the camera to Virginia, and you don't want a lousy iPhone photo of that expectation defying accomplishment.