A previous version of this post ran with FAUCET spelled FAWCETT. Today I learned that the titular sink fixture was not in fact named after Farrah Fawcett. The More You Know…
Yesterday I fixed a leaky faucet in my bathroom.
This is hardly one of the 12 labors of Hercules, but I’m generally not “handy”. At least, that’s what I always said as an excuse for not fixing things. The truth is I hate feeling STUPID and the thought of not being able to figure something out makes me feel stupid, so I think up reasons why I shouldn’t try in the first place. Clearly, this is not a virtue.
In keeping with the mild self-improvement kick I’ve been on, I decided to just shout “Damn the Torpedoes” and charge headlong into the mine-filled waters of ultra-basic home maintenance. The repair ended up being slightly more complicated than the YouTube video I watched promised. It seems, due to the assembly-line, cookie-cutteresque method of suburban construction nobody had bothered to plumb shut-off valves into the water lines under my bathroom sink. I eventually had to shut off the water to my entire house for an hour and a half while I extracted the worn cartridges then purchased and installed replacement cartridges into the sink, but 90 minutes later I had a fully functional sink again!
The sink fixed, I began prowling the house like a caged lion seeking out other broken shit to fix. I was mad with power! I was the smartest man alive! I fixed a drawer, the bottom hinge on my bedroom door and my shower!
The shower problem goes back a few years to when, afraid to feel stupid, I had someone else fix a leaky showerhead. Ever since that repair the shower would never heat up to a temperature much higher than “arctic tundra”. I endured this for several years, again because I didn’t want to take it apart and try to figure out how to fix it for fear of feeling stupid. Well, yesterday I took it apart and discovered there’s a pin that goes inside the shower handle that stops the knob from rotating too far and it had been inserted upside down. Two minute fix. I could have been having nice hot showers for the past 3 years if I hadn’t been afraid of feeling stupid. It turns out that the satisfaction I felt in solving these problems myself far exceeded the anxiety I felt when thinking about the possibility of failing and feeling stupid.
*Ron Howard Voice* Joey was getting life-lessons all over the place.
Currently Playing: TenDJiz – “De La Soulviet”
Currently Reading: HEAVY WEATHER, Bruce Sterling (GR)
joezone 