On the Topic of Handy

My brother and Dad were neither the sporty type so I did not grow up being trained in the ways of athleticism. In fact, it was quite the opposite for quite a while. What they DID instill in me, my Dad in particular, is the art of being handy. I was exposed to tools at an early age (I keep forgetting to let my daughters loose with a hammer, board, and some nails) and clearly remember both of my grandpas tinkered and would give me broken steroes and radios to take apart. My Dad was always working on something and had/still has a deep love of tools (especially old ones, full of character) which I've inherited. I recently went on a mother/daughter getaway (a post of its own coming right up!) and while in an antique store (for over an hour and a half...it was glorious to have no one there to complain but ourselves), I audibly exclaimed in excitement at the sight of some old wood planes. I guess it's a handy person thing.

My brother taught me more on the computer/technology side of things but putting together a computer also takes, you guessed it, tools. When I prepared for college, one thing I made sure I had my own of was a small tool box. Because, do you know how handy a pair of needle-nose pliers is? Very handy. For so many things. It's probably pretty obvious to you but it took me a LONG time to recognize how handy I actually was. And I don't think it was until recently that it really sank in that...I'm as good at this as any guy. Better than many. And so there's really no reason left to assume my husband will handle all the handywork if I'm capable. Now, he's also very handy and in different ways, so together, we are a valuable asset to any castaway crew. But I found I was naturally falling in my mom's footsteps of leaving things up to the MAN to do and then getting annoyed it wasn't getting done in my timeline. Don't get me wrong, I think he should still do things. But my point is, I realized I was just assuming he was better at it than me, so he should naturally be the first choice. But that's just not so and I think I'm finally willing and proud to admit that.

Now, I am by no means qualified in all areas of construction. But I'll give it a stab if I feel a need to. Deployments definitely pushed me into a further position of necessity. When there isn't someone there to take care of business, YOU'VE gotta take care of business. And seeing as sometimes the professionals turn out to not be so professional (or competent) it's suddenly solely up to you to make sure your faucet stops leaking. The faucet with the part NO ONE has ever seen or heard of before. (THANK YOU YOUTUBE for helping me identify it and find a solution.)

It has taken me two sculpture classes where I was handling some pretty heavy duty tools, installing ALL of the bathroom hardware in this house in addition to all curtain rods (and in previous house, along with some blinds), drilling into concrete for the first time, and hanging INNUMERABLE pictures, shelves, and other decor or household items, taking apart and repairing toys, bikes, and other things for my kids, and assembling Ikea furniture like it's my JOB (I joked with John that we should hire ourselves out to Ikea shoppers to assemble their purchases because, working together, we are a well-oiled machine and we actually enjoy doing it) to realize...I've got this. I'm more than decent at this. And I'll figure it out.