Monday, June 22, 2009

Genetically coded for fun

Heather and Julie approach Devil's Pass.
Click here for Julie's side of the story.

One of my next-door neighbors is building a new deck. I drove home from the grocery store today and saw another guy unloading lumber from his minivan. A nearby neighbor is in his usual summer mode, working his little green thumbs off to grow flowers that’ll be dead in three months.

I never got the manly home-improvement gene. I’d rather work with cone wrenches than a power tool any day. Hell, last week I had a root canal and found it more enjoyable than any hour-long trip to a hardware store. (It helped that a cute endodontist is way hotter than some unhelpful guy in an orange vest full of ink pens and safety-training buttons.)

Some guys love all that hardware/home-improvement stuff. Give 'em some tools, a project and some beer, and they’ll pound away all day. Then there are guys like me; the ones who think college was invented to make us employable enough that we can occasionally afford to pay a contractor's bill.

As this past Sunday wound down, many families were enjoying the results of weekend projects: new decks, freshly painted kitchens and beautiful gardens.

I had a garage full of wet camping gear, a trashed mountain bike, a pile of stinky-ass clothes, and a happy smile.

I love being unskilled.

4 comments:

The Old Bag said...

Change one word in that one phrase and there's a whole new meaning: give 'em some tools, a bicycle and some beer and they'll pound away all day.

Ahh summer.

We finally realized starting projects means weekend are full of working on projects.

Vito said...

One of your best posts yet...I love it!

I'm with you all the way. I'll take the bike, a good trail, and a cold beer over painting, fixing, and remodeling any day of the week.

saved by biking said...

I'm sitting here looking at a lot of tools, a lot of empty brown bottles, and your blog - and a house with no walls and limited plumbing.... I salute you!

Tony

Grill Meister said...

That's what I love about retirement. I'm one of those doofuses that likes to play with wood, but because of retirement I can do like I did this past Tuesday, work on my friends wedding arbork for a few hours and then hit the trails for a 5 hour ride.

Grill Meister