Real Kato Blog: Handy (I Think)

When we were getting our flooring installed, the installers asked Amy if I was "handy"... meaning, was I capable of moving all the furniture out of the way and putting it back without their help. Amy said, "Well, he thinks he's handy."

Ahem.

Now, to be fair, she only said it so they would move all the furniture for us without charging us. But it's one of those statements that I'll never let her live down. And it always makes me want to prove myself by taking on household projects.

When lightning struck near our house this summer, it knocked out a number of things, like our cable modem and our dryer. Also our upstairs cable TV has been on the fritz; the signal has been weak and some channels haven't been coming in at all.

Now, the cable modem was simple: I just took it to the Time Warner office and they replaced it with a new one. But as far as the dryer and the cable TV, I knew that calling for repairs would require a time-consuming service call that would require me to sit at home all day... and would probably cost me a few hundred bucks for the pleasure.

So instead, I fixed the dryer by looking through the service manual (which was available online, but also turned out to be hidden behind the front panel of the dryer). I went through the tech's diagnostic procedures, and they indicated that a new logic board was needed. I ordered the part on the internet, took the dryer apart, and installed the new board. Bingo: the dryer works perfectly again.

And as far as the upstairs cable, I determined that the wiring through the house wasn't up to par. It was the inferior RG-59 coax, not the RG-6 coax needed for digital cable. There was absolutely no way I was going to replace all the existing wiring: it ran up through an exterior wall, through the attic, and back down into our bedroom. So I ran a new cable through the floor, through a first floor closet, up through the first floor ceiling and through the floor just outside our bedroom. And hey, now all the channels are working again.

These are the kinds of things that make me feel like I've proven my worth as a husband. Now I'm sure there are plenty of independent women that are capable of doing these kinds of things, but look: we men like to feel useful by doing these kinds of things. I mean, what good are we if we don't do stuff like this?

It makes us think we're handy, anyway.

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