The Handy Man

The past couple of weeks have not been all that good for me. First of all, some of the tile in my walk-in shower came loose and I had to have the “handy man” visit to see what could be done. He said I needed to fix it; I already knew that. He pulled out a bunch more that were not good and said he’d check around for tile and call me in a few days. In the meantime, I had to shower in the bathtub in my bedroom bathroom. I don’t like getting into that bathtub as I don’t feel safe with just a shower curtain to grab hold of as I fall out of the tub. I like the walk-in shower better obviously. Who wouldn’t? So I managed to shower without breaking a hip or neck in the bathtub with the shower. He came back several days later with some tile he’d found someplace and proceeded to put them in. He was very neat and didn’t make any mess at all. All men should be like that!

So while he was doing that, I decided to harvest the potatoes I’ve been growing on the sidewalk leading to my front deck. They looked nice at first – all green beautiful leaves – but recently they turned yellow and looked like shit. I was afraid the condo association would send me a letter, asking me to vacate the premises. It was really too early to harvest them, but I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. So I dug up the potatoes which were very small – some very tiny. I had two meals out of them and they were good. I’m not going to harvest the potato plant on my back deck until later. When I was done digging, I did a very stupid thing which I do occasionally. I picked up the pot full of dirt and moved it onto my deck and set it on another pot. It was heavy, and when I straightened up, my back hurt terribly, and I knew I was in trouble. So for about a week I’ve been walking very carefully and trying not to sit down or lie down. I can’t sit on anything soft as it hurts when I try to get up. So that lets out my sofa which is soft and comfortable. I can’t sit in soft chairs, only hard chairs. I have been forced to sleep on my bed as it’s hard and I can get up without pain. I try to watch TV at night, sitting on a hard chair in the living room, but even that hurts after a couple of hours. So I’m spending many hours in my bedroom, watching my little TV and reading. I’m wondering if that is going to be my life from now on.

The tile fixing took about a week, and the handy man also did a few others things for me. He noticed the handle on my screen door had broken off which forced one to push in a button that was not at all easy to do. He said he could fix that, so he went to a hardware store, got a new screen door opener and installed it. But the final thing he did was clip some metal off a new bra I have. I had tried to cut it with a knife but my knife that I was using was very dull, probably because it was my mother’s, and who knows when she got it. I know I should have it sharpened sometime, but will probably leave it like it is for fear of cutting a finger off! But the handy man had something that cuts through metal, and he fixed it in seconds. It was a miracle! I had thought of taking the bra to my hardware store, but didn’t know how receptive they would have been. I wonder if he performs all those chores for other people. I feel very fortunate to have had him here. I hope I didn’t scare him because I’m sure I’ll need him again . . . hopefully not for bra fixing.

The picture I put on my last posting was a beautiful one of Teri and her son, Harry, before they attended a wedding. I wanted to find a comparable one of Cindy and one of her boys, but found nothing new. So I came across this one of a long time ago where Cindy is all dressed up and could be on her way to a wedding. I’m wondering where she got the gloves. I didn’t wear gloves. Whose gloves were they? Anyway, she looked beautiful. I’ll check with her sometime about the gloves. And where did she get the dress?