sometimes you gotta swing the hammer

I crossed off two items on the TO-DO list this evening.

A couple of weeks ago, my truck’s driver’s side window stopped windowing.  My lovely wife was at the helm, but I can’t hold her responsible (though I am seriously reconsidering letting anyone named Kim drive my truck ever again.)  A cable snapped, rendering the “up” function useless.  My buddy Paul helped me diagnose the issue, then I scouted the internets for the parts needed.  I found the cheapest one, ordered the wrong one, and thought I was set.

Did you see what I did there?  Yep.  Ordered the wrong part.  Wanna-be-handy-people, hear this:  no repair job will ever require less than 2 trips to the store.  It doesn’t matter what the job is–plumbing, roofing, grouting, or car repair.  Count on making repeat trips to the store for things that you didn’t get the first time, replacement parts for the replacement parts you break in the process, or returning the incorrect parts for the proper ones.  Such is life.

After getting the replacement part for the replacement part today, I shuffled out to the truck under the cover of darkness (halftime of Monday Night Football) to attempt the deed.  In a matter of minutes, armed with the proper tools and the correct parts, I was done.  Now I can get rid of the stick and cardboard that was holding my window in place, keeping the rain at bay.

The other job was a repeat performance.  Sadie’s door won’t open if it gets closed.  Something happened to the lock, and when it’s shut, it’s SHUT.  The first time it happened it was summer.  The windows were open, and a borrowed ladder allowed me to enter the room from with the stealth of a cat-burglar.  (Who steals cats, by the way?  That’s just silly.)  Please note that it’s regularly in the 40’s at night now, and windows are no longer open.  I found that out as I was prying the screen off Sadie’s window, perched precariously 20 feet off the ground.

Plan B: It’s hammer time.

I wish that I had video taped my solution.  Let’s just say that the doorknob needed to be replaced anyway, and I like making trips to Lowe’s.

Solving problems, both in life and in home repair, calls for wisdom.  Sometimes it’s a finesse job (like replacing the window regulator on a truck) and sometimes it’s a brute-force job.  The key is knowing when it’s time to be gentle and when it’s time to swing the hammer.  Both can be satisfying, if the approach results in a problem solved.  It’s a good feeling to out-think a stumper, to call on creativity to work around a roadblock.  But I have to admit that it felt pretty good to whack at that doorknob until it came flying off the door in submission!

And just for fun, I leave you with this: