My father is a man of many talents. Home repair is not one of them. Unless a home repair requires duct tape it is generally beyond him.
Gutter falling down? Duct tape. Ripped screen door? Duct tape. Crack in the canoe? Duct tape. He once duct-taped our rotten picnic table together as a “temporary” solution. We did not buy a new one for over a year.
One day while driving our old van, dad thought he heard wind whistling through the floor. We peeled back the floor mat to explore. It turns out the wind was not coming through a few rusty pinholes, but rather through one giant rusted out hole the size of a basketball. We found an old piece of sheet metal. We placed it over the hole and anchored it in place with some duct tape. Dad drove that van with a duct-taped floor for another 5 years.
I once asked dad if he would show me how to fix something – anything – that did not involve duct tape. Most of the other dads I knew were handy. Could he show some home repairs that involved wiring, plumbing, or power tools? Dad looked at me thoughtfully. He nodded.
“You’re right”, he said. “It’s high time for me to show you what I know about home repair”. We agreed to install a garage door opener together the following day.
When I awoke the next morning dad was already in the kitchen. He was in his work clothes, cooking pancakes. I quickly got dressed and my heart filled with happiness at this father-son bonding. We finished our breakfast and moved out to do our first real home repair together. Just then the doorbell rang.
There stood the neighbourhood handyman. “Good morning”, he said to my dad. “Thanks for the call yesterday. What is it that I can do for you?”
“Thanks for coming over”, said my dad. “We’ve got a garage door here that needs to be installed”. He handed our garage keys to the handyman and closed the door.
Then he turned to me with a twinkle in his eye. “Well son, that’s about all I have to teach you about home repair”, he said. “Any questions”?