The Suitcase Lady

Directions

April 5, 2011, 9:49 pm

I married into a family that is famous for throwing away the directions. From faucets to furniture assembly, the instructions get ditched.

Early on in our marriage, I naively asked,”Why are the instructions in the garbage?”

“We need to figure this out ourselves,” my husband replied. “That’s the way to learn how to fix stuff.”

How logical, and how lovely to be the recipient of my husband’s handiness. My guy can fix anything. Broken computers, dripping faucets, strange noises coming from my car’s engine, he can tackle any job and invariably succeed. I estimate we have saved about two million in repair bills in the course of our marriage.

I believe genetics plays a role here. My husband’s grandfather invented the V8 tractor, a dandy cherry pitter and a high tech apple picker.

My father-in-law could repair anything; cars, roofs, swamp coolers and unicycles to name but a few. But I must admit he was also a first rate jerry-rigger. After his death, his widow was visited by an electrical inspector. “Who wired this house?” he inquired. It suddenly dawned on my mother-in-law why her electric bills always had been so amazingly low.

The younger generation is carrying on the  figure it out yourself tradition with flair. Our son is working on a solar heated hot tub. His cousin has sent several satellites into space. I doubt that NASA had a stock instruction booklet for their assembly.


2 Comments for this entry