A Snowflake Challenge from several years ago was: “In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at. Leave a comment saying you did it.” I started writing it, but never posted it; probably got caught up in school. So I’m posting it now -- and some examples -- as an explanation for a bunch of future posts where I note the things I ‘fix’.
A few years before I read that challenge, I realized that I’m pretty damn good at solving problems. Usually it's rough-and-ready that I can do myself, sometimes I need to get someone else to do it for me. But if I can identify a problem, I can often devise a solution. (Although sometimes it takes quite a while for me to figure it out; I think the irritation needs to build to a high enough level for me to act.) The ‘fix-its’ that I manage myself are often
far from the way an experienced (specific relevant job-worker) would do it, but they work. What often surprises me is that, although I consider my solution to be devised from simple practicality, others often regard it as thinking ‘outside the box’. It’s kind of weird.
First, you should know that [a] my dad was a very handy man, and [b] I was always around, watching and/or helping. My dad tried many hobbies during my lifetime, and did all of them well. I believe -- although I never asked him -- that he’d enjoy a hobby until he was so good at it, and he’d done everything he could with it, that it finally got boring, so then he looked for a new challenge. I remember him doing watch repair, photography, leatherwork, pottery (poured, not thrown), painting, ham radio, square dancing (Mom, Dad, me, and my next sis), jewelry-making with silver he melted and stones he polished himself, and woodworking. He had his own darkroom in the basement in the days of black-and-white film, won awards for his leatherwork, decorated our and relatives’ houses with pottery art, made wooden clocks (bought the clockworks to put inside) and small furniture for everyone in the family -- I have two bookshelves, a printer table, a grandfather clock, a stand-up pendulum clock, a display case, an entertainment center, a jewelry box, and three footstools that Dad made.
AND he built the last home that he and Mom lived in -- log walls outside, finished inside, did all the plumbing, wiring, heating ducts, built the cabinets, etc, etc, etc. (He called in inspectors to check the necessary parts -- plumbing, wiring, heating -- to ensure it was correct and up to code.)
Depending on how old I was and what he was doing, I either watched (watch-repair, leatherwork), joined in (pottery, square dancing), or helped (fetch, carry, and hold for woodworking and house-building). I helped carry the logs, feed the wiring, and put up drywall for the house during holidays and summers. I also swing a mean hammer, and was up on the roof shingling when the time came. Dad didn’t let me use the power tools until I was on my own; he worried that his ‘little girl’ might get hurt. But he did give me an electric drill and a saber-saw (I had them on my wish-list) for my first Christmas in my own home; I needed tools for doing things. But even though I didn’t do much fixing myself in those days, I was around his work areas so much that I absorbed the idea very early -- ‘if something isn’t how you want it, there’s a way to fix that’.
( Cut for extensive rambling. ) ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
