Beyond Fixing?

It really was a very nice, extremely pleasant surprise I got last week when a check arrived -one I'd been anticipating its arrival since early September -and just a small token payment for allowing people to have  access to the property behind mine, which mine abuts. I do wish there would be checks like this every month -oh heck, even once a year would be great too -but I know that's not going to be the case. Just still basking in the light right now that says I can pay my normal monthly bills this month as well as making some payments on my way overdue medical expenses too!

It would be nice to be able to get things on a decent equilibrium and maybe get some credit repair finally at least a bit under way here.

After doing my regular blog readings this morning, I got to thinking about various things while Sam and I went for a little walk. We only walked a little less than a mile, round-trip, and it was a bit on the futile side too as all he was interested in doing was checking out every leaf, blade of grass, tree truck, rock -you name it -to do a bit of watering but apparently had no inclination whatsoever into making any deposits of a fertilizing variety. Rats! That means that sometime again today either Mandy or I will have to venture out into the cold, raw air -with a fine mist falling too -in hopes he will get the right idea and leave something of substance behind so as not to have to feel the need to drop those goodies late tonight either in the bathroom, on the floor directly in front of the commode or -worst case scenario -put a deposit on the carpet in my bedroom for me to unwittingly run the risk of stepping in when I go to bed tonight. I don't mind surprises, mind you, but those kind of surprises are the kind I most definitely can do with out!

But anyway, my friend Bud at Older Eyes was talking today about what things we seem to be adept at doing and wanted to know what we, his readers, thought our skills might be that may surprise other people.

I mentioned that this past week, after my older daughter and her fiance had brought up a base telephone and a cordless unit to go with it (that they no longer need since they no longer have a "land-line") and they were tired of trying to carry on conversations with me on the phone I had here which was at the point that very rarely could I hear conversations on it without the chat being peppered with me asking people to repeat, then repeat again and again, what had been said. The volume on that phone was absolutely atrocious and that, added to the fact that I do have a few hearing problems to begin with, well it was a maddening thing for sure!

But over the weekend, I couldn't get anyone to hook the new phone up for me so Monday morning I decided to try to tackle the project myself. I disconnected the old phone very carefully, noting where  each wire had to go and then, finally disentangled the wires from all the other wires behind the computer and got the new phone system hooked in and voila -it was working!

My kids are not accustomed to my doing things like that! Anything involving wires and computers -although I am and have been a pc user at home for 12 years now and have worked around and on computers for well over 40 years -off and on -the thing is, I never had to work with actually hooking anything up! Friends and neighbors here who don't often understand about computers and stuff, and who have known me for many, many moons tend to think because my experience goes back that far in time that I also have lots and lots of expertise in the computer field. They don't realize that all I really know how to do with a computer is to turn one on, turn it off too to get things to reset themselves at times, and to type! I can use several different computer programs but that is merely utilizing software, not necessarily understanding how the system itself works!

But needless to say, in thinking about things I can do that maybe are surprising to others the aspect of my connecting the "new-to-me" telephone is one thing I'm happy I gave it a shot and that I got it done without irritating any family members to get them to do that minor job for me! It also got me thinking about how, for a good many years after my kids and I moved into this big old house that had been my grandparents home, then my Mom's and now mine, how when I was a kid, things would go awry in the house and around the place and somehow my Mom always managed to get things fixed. Not by hiring someone to come in and do the work for her, but rather, she frequently would do many of the needed repairs around here by herself! It used to really irritate me greatly to realize how many varied things that woman could and would do and how the heck did she ever learn those skills anyway?

My Mom would tackle anything -well almost anything -the exception being anything involving electricity as she was scared s******s about messing with that, but she could and did do carpentry, plumbing, masonry and landscaping stuff, gardening too, right up there with the best of 'em! Knowing that she had known how to handle these various types of tasks and I knew nothing about any of them, it gave me a very inferiority complex for many years until my one aunt told me one day that my problem was simply that I had never had the luck of having three brothers who each knew a great deal about those things and who could and would and did frequently explain how to go about doing these things to my Mom and what she would need, etc., and then, she would set out to do the work herself!

So, if anyone would like to take on the unpaid job of being my quasi older (or younger) brother -which I never had -and try to show me how to tackle some of the many repair jobs needed around this old house, feel free to list your abilities and when you'd be able to show up and give instructions! Keep in mind, I don't follow written directions very well as I am much more of a visual, hands-on, kind of learner.

Or perhaps at this stage of the game, I'm not quite up to the task of becoming a do-it-yourself kind of person!