Day 73: The curse of being self reliant (Written by my Dad)

I have a lot of respect and admiration for my Dad. He is a very intelligent and witty human being and I'd like to think that some of my finest qualities come from him. So when he asked if I'd ever thought of having a guest writer on my blog, I have to admit, I was pretty flattered.

So I proudly present, an article written by my Dad, Doug Hughes.

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The Curse of Being Self Reliant
By Doug Hughes

I have a shrubbery in the front yard (and how can you not be thinking Monty Python now?). Last summer a significant portion of this plant didn't have leaves and it was looking pretty rough. I thought I'd attend to this yard issue before the Home Owners Association started walking up and down my sidewalk with picket sign.

First order of business was to roughly cut out obvious dead wood so I could get a better idea of what was going on. Root rot? Bunnies girdling the tree? (Yes, that is a real word.) Overuse of foliage killer? (Unlikely). So I finish with two rather full bags of trimmings, broken into small bits so the garbage folks don't get jabbed. Second pass, trace back the dead branches as far as possible, cut them off, etc.

You might ask, "Do you know what you're doing?" To which I'd answer, not really, kind of making it up as I go. But, if the branch is already dead, it's unlikely I'm going to kill it more. Plus, I grew up in the vicinity of an orchard and was regularly pressed into manual labor, so I picked up a few tips along the way.

So how many hours did I work on this? Don't know exactly, it's not done and I'm into it a couple... I'm guessing another hour to finish. The technical stuff is coming up shortly, as well as a decision whether to keep the shrub and nurse it back to health or just yank it out of the ground.

So, a few paragraphs in and I'll finally get to the point. I do stuff. Yard work, car work, computer work, cooking work, writing work, house work, etc. It's a long list. I'd readily admit that I'm not a professional at most of these things, but in many cases I'll do work better than a professional because I'm not on the clock and I have a vested interest in the outcome. But, because I may need to do some outside research, it may take me significantly longer than a professional.

Why do I do this? Because I can, and the 'work' part really isn't work as in drudgery, it's typically either a challenge, or a relaxation experience, or a chance to save big bucks over what it would cost to go to a professional. Not that I'm necessarily cheap, but I've been disappointed many times at the time, quality, convenience, and of course cost, at having work done elsewhere.

Sometimes I have ideas that are a vision not shared by anyone else; for instance, a small entertainment stand I built recently. Raw materials were already on hand, the design fit exactly what I needed, and to draw a detailed design, find a shop that would do a custom job, and get to them when they were open, would likely take as long as it took me to build it. Having worked in a shop at one point I'd estimate the cost to be in the $200-$300 price range. I built it in a few hours on a Saturday afternoon with scrap laying around the house.

Next question, "And why would you think there is a down side?" I've got to admit, I get a great feeling of accomplishment doing these things, and saving the money is really nice. Plus, I have an adoring following of people who are impressed with these abilities and bring their own ideas to me regularly. I truly love it.

The down side is that life very quickly fills up these tasks. If you CAN do something you find that you DO it. If you can do lots of things you quickly find that there isn't enough time in this life to do those things. People look at my garage and say, "Why do you need all this stuff?" And many have offered to help me get rid of it. That 'stuff' is what supports the ability to do, well, pretty much anything. Replace a timing belt? Sure. Plumbing, Yup. Electrical? Wiring a basement, tracing a car schematic, or repairing an electric piano? Rebuilding a bike? Generally, but they keep changing technologies, which means new tools all the time, darn it. Recording from a High-8 video camera to a player/recorder DVD? Just did that, had to read a dozen pages from the manual to get all the settings right, but it's not hard, just lots of steps.

What about time? There is never enough. I don't understand people who have time to watch movies or play video games. Not that those aren't enjoyable social activities, but alone? Why would a person do that? And being bored? Can't even understand the concept.

But you can't walk by a problem without searching for a solution, there are very few things that ever need to be thrown away because even poorly made stuff from Walmart can still be fixed. I walked by two houses today that had perfectly serviceable things in the trash. Had a brief thought to grab the porch swing, but I'm trying to cut back rather than acquire.

I know a number of people that can't wait for the weekend so they can 'get away'. I truly have nothing against recreation, travel, entertainment, but to put your life on hold all week so you can go 'away'? It's a tradeoff, you go play but then need to pay someone to paint your house, mow your lawn, feed your dog. I see people with nothing in their garage and wonder, how do they fix a a leaky faucet, what do they do when their furnace quits working at 2AM on the coldest day of the year? Why is the turn signal flasher the parts manual says is for my car not working? (All real world examples btw). I'm not sure what they do. I just do a little research, read the manual, ask my friend Mr. Google, and fix it. Then contemplate what it would be like to have a garage with space to easily open all the car doors without having to pull out on the driveway first.

I think the curse is hereditary. I got it from my parents, and I keep seeing signs of it in my kids.