Damned if you do, damned if you don't

[Phogfan86]

At around 9 this evening, the arm on the back of our toilet handle -- the one that pulls the chain inside the tank? -- broke. The temperature was in single digits and the wind was blowing 648 miles per hour, so I figured that until I can get out in the light of day tomorrow, when it's not brass monkey cold, I'll just reach in and pull the chain my own self. I was, however, informed that this would mean that my wife would have to put her hand in the water to grab the end of the chain.

Oh.

So, rather than go to a hardware store, I take my life into my own hands and head to WalMart.

I find the piece we need easy enough and come home. I set the toilet handle/arm on the kitchen table and go about my business. After 20 minutes or so, my wife gets up in a huff and starts to make the repair herself. Peachy.

She fooled with it for 45 minutes. For some reason, she can't get the plastic nut loose that holds the arm and handle together. She had every tool in the house out -- pliers, crescent wrenches, channel locks, saws, roto tillers, air compressors, wood chippers, bulldozers, the whole thing. She's frustrated with her own inability to get the plastic nut off and the new piece on, but she's also mad at me for not fixing it in the first place when I got home from WalMart.

So I bumble into the living room where she's sitting, giving me the skunk eye from the recliner. That is when I did something that I will pay for until, maybe, dinnertime tomorrow: I fixed the toilet.

I pulled my multi-tool out of my pocket and walked into the bathroom. Sitting on the seat, backwards, I somehow managed to get a grip on the plastic nut with the needle-nosed pliers first time I tried and it broke loose. I had the nut and, in turn, the old handle and broken arm off in about 45 seconds and the new one in almost as quickly.

I fixed it in about two minutes. She messed with it for about 45 minutes. She was furious.

She was mad when I didn't fix it and even madder when I did. I need a drink.

[chasem]

haha I feel for you. Hope for the best for you over the next few days ;)

[Southern Breeze]

Reminds me of the time my boss worked on an irrigation system for 2 hours. He gave up and called me. I had it up and running in 5 minutes. All I did was turn the main water valve on.

[BroosterB1]

Yup..Uh huh...(nodding with great understanding) thats right, dear...Yes, I am.....Oh, thats correct....

All said with the knowledge that you are entirely and utterly wrong.

[Bugbear]

Ehh, what can you do. That nut usually turns in an opisit direction from what you are use to to tighten and loosen. Just be thankful you didn't have to yank the bowl and change the wax seal.

I'm not married and don't plan to be, so around here I have to get angry at myself for those types of things. Perhaps, in a way, I know how both of you feel...

[Oddern]

Been there don that! We married guys understand what you are going through. I think your situation illustrate what all married men have to go through. But as the strong half of a marriage we men just have take it, bite it in and take a drink in bitter silence.

[Pleater]

Oh dear - still laughing here - did you ever hear about the book called Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?

Personally I think men arrived on a coach trip from Alpha Centauri and got so drunk they missed their ride home.

You see - or rather you don't - this was 'a difficult job' - as defined by the distaff side being unable to do it.

It required what is called 'diplomacy'.

The sword side should have rejected efficiency and other masculine acceptable traits and gone for a version of the batting the eyelashes technique, which involves sending the wife on really helpful errands - this would perhaps entail requesting a cup of coffee and upon it being delivered, being found struggling with the problem. After drinking the cup of coffee you then have an idea, which succeeds and THEN you fix the toilet.

There is such a thing as being too clever.

As an audio visual technician at a college, I was never forgiven for plugging in the television when one of the lecturers was having problems showing a video recording. Maybe if I could have done it without giggling.....

Anne the Pleater

[Bugbear]

Stop laughing at me, Pleater!

Actually, after living alone all these years, I do sometimes literally start yelling at myself for all the stupid mistakes I make.

Doh!! I'm an idiot!!

[BEEDEE]

At around 9 this evening, the arm on the back of our toilet handle -- the one that pulls the chain inside the tank? -- broke. The temperature was in single digits and the wind was blowing 648 miles per hour, so I figured that until I can get out in the light of day tomorrow, when it's not brass monkey cold, I'll just reach in and pull the chain my own self. I was, however, informed that this would mean that my wife would have to put her hand in the water to grab the end of the chain.

That was your mistake. Now if you had just attached a loop of string to the chain and tied it to a chopstick or small piece of wood that would span the tank top, she could have flushed without getting her hands wet, and you could have delayed until the morning and fixed it then.

Having braved the elements and got the replacement part, you were honor bound to finish the job!

Brian

[Howard Clark]

I once upon a time made a service call to a maintenance facility owned by a large chain of convenience stores once to work on a brand new refrigeration unit on a semi trailer. Upon arriving, I found four mechanics, and the service manager standing there on the deck of a Mack truck staring intently at the unit, doors open. Collectively, there was about $300/hr worth of mechanical ability there at that moment. They were all dumbfounded about why the thing was not charging it's battery. I shut it off, put my hand on the alternator pulley (which was smoking, literally burning the paint off it). I borrowed a 1/2" wrench, and tightened the belt. All better.

My wife makes no attempt to do home repair stuff unless I am not here. And then She has done well on her own. She installed a new entry door on the house a few years ago whilst I was on a road trip out of town for a week (after locking herself out of the house, and the destroying the door to get in, because there was food on the stove, with a fire under it). She did fine job too, I must add !

Sometimes there is just no winning. That is the way life is. She will get over it, eventually.