Humor
It’s a Lock
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Put your houseguests to work
When you are expecting houseguests, it’s good to have a list of projects — you know, just in case they ask, “Is there anything you need help with?”
This is the situation I found myself in when my friends Mary Ann and Tom showed up for a visit in my new condo recently. I needed to replace my locks and had already displayed the new locks prominently on my kitchen table. After a while, Tom said, “If you have any projects you need help with, let me know.” Most people might say, “Oh, that’s nice, but I couldn’t impose.” I, on the other hand, have no qualms about asking for help.
“Well, since you asked,” I said to Tom, “I have these locks that need to be installed.” As he unpacked the boxes with the locks, he said, “One trick with these projects is to always be sure that you can put everything back in the box. You know, in case you decide not to do the project after all.” This made me slightly nervous since I didn’t want him to reconsider his offer to install the locks.
“That’s an interesting take,” I said. “My friend Jim, who also often finds himself doing projects for me, always finishes his projects.” I figured that most guys have enough of an ego that they don’t want to hear that someone else might be better at projects.
As Mary Ann and I sipped our wine, she shared with me that she was a bit worried. “Tom usually needs a couple of weeks to complete any project around our house,” she said. Since they were only visiting for a few days, I also grew worried — particularly when I noticed that Tom had already taken out the old lock and there was now a round hole in the door.
Soon Tom announced that he had reached an impasse and could not figure out how to remove the remaining couple of screws from the other part of the lock.
“I can help with that!” I quickly exclaimed. After all, I didn’t want him to think that I was completely helpless. I grabbed my computer and Googled: “Video of how to remove screws from a lock when it is not obvious how the screws come out.” Sure enough, there were 17 related videos. The first one in the list was 25 minutes long. Far too much information, I thought. The next one was only 17 seconds; surely far too little information. Finally, I found one that was just the right length — two minutes and six seconds. Tom watched it with me, walked over to the door and one minute later announced, “Got it!”
Have I mentioned how much I love YouTube? They have a solution for just about any problem that arises. Well, okay, maybe they don’t have a good solution for getting your husband to put the toilet seat down. But then again, that’s not a problem I need a solution for. Being single sometimes has its advantages.
