Guys 'n' Gals--the Difference, pt.2,378:

[Knothead]

LOL...this was inspired by the post today by Surreal, where she had a plugged kitchen sink drain. Us guys practically had the siding off of her house, when NeoStar suggested simply dropping the sink trap and clearing that...and guess what? It WORKED!!

LOL...I blame Testosterone. We love our tools, and we wanna fix BIG stuff--don't bother me with that loose light switch plate...unless, of course, it needs to be REWIRED!!! YAYY!!

The guy and the gal notice the light on the kitchen ceiling is out. To the male mind, this could be indicative of a severed wire (he is CERTAIN he may have pierced that Romex line when he put the ceiling fan up!) or an electrical short. Serious news, either way.

Grimly and with a sense of noble purpose, he heads toward the Altar of Masculinity (the workbench) and emitting Tim Allen-style grunts, begins to put the expected tools into his tote: sheetrock knife, dikes, wire strippers, electrical tape, an extra length of Romex, etc.

"Urrrr, ar-ar-ar-ar" he says, as each item is carefully toted to the kitchen.

It isn't until the third trip between the "Altar" and the "Worksite", that he notices that the light has inexplicably commenced working again...it seems the gal has tiptoed over to the cabinet above the laundry....that's right. She has replaced the bulb.

Our hero stares for a long moment. "Urrr?? ar-ar?? AR?" he sputters. Then, he picks up the tools and starts putting 'em back.

But it's okay. His pride is undamaged...for he knows in his little simian heart that his skills, and his beloved tools will have another day to come out and play...

[geekgrl]

*laugh* I'm the guy in my marriage. I'm the one who tries to "repair" things. (But I'm also in school for engineering, maybe that has something to do with it.) In this case, my husband would be the one changing the bulb.

[phenious]

im the one who screwed up the bulb

-: phenious :-

[Graham]

I am reminded of the old "standard"....


A man and woman sitting on a park bench staring into the clear dark night.
The man is thinking, "all those stars, all those galaxies, the possibilty of millions of planets and maybe, just maybe, other forms of life, how small and insignificant man is"
The woman is thinking....


"I must wash my hair tomorrow."

G

[Ed_S]

We come by it naturally after years of fixing things. I think it's some sort of Pavlovian reaction to Murphy's law - If it can go wrong, it will.

I know that nearly every time I remember trying a quick easy fix it ends up being major repairs instead. So, you just learn to plan for the "worst case scenario". Strangely, you also begin to relish the challenge and feel dissapointed if it's too easy...

Also, we tend to get a bad case of the "while we're at it" syndrome. Take that kitchen drain, for instance. Let's say it DID require deeper repair. You snake the pipe. Old pipe is weak, holes develop that were safely plugged by rust & crude. So the pipe's gotta go, which means you yank out the sink & cabinet. Now, are we really gonna reinstall that old sink & cab?? Heck, NO! We're guys, right?!
Well, you simply can't replace one cabinet, right? And new cabs make the floor look bad...
So, before it's over that clogged drain ends up being a new kitchen, took 2 months, and costs $10K!!

[TonTo]

i remember spending like, an hour tryin to strip the plastic off a the lil tiny itty bitty wires in phone lines... so i could splice it. (i was kinda bored) and i couldn't do it... cuz i'd get like, 2 done... then i'd go to far on the 3rd one and cut the wire... pist me off.... so, after like an hour... a friend of mine leans over with a lighter and boom,.... all 4 lines done in 3 seconds..... i still think my way was better...... the phone line knew who was in charge...

So, before it's over that clogged drain ends up being a new kitchen, took 2 months, and costs $10K!!

Oh wow the ultimate drain repair!