A phrase we all grew up with anytime anything needed to be screwed together or tightened or loosened. Once it's a part of your personal lexicon, it's just as natural as breathing.
Unless you're dyslexic...and even that is a variable as dyslexia takes many forms. For my spouse, it's an impossible thing. You can say it over and over and over. And the next words sound a, little panic striken - which way is left?
He knows the difference between right and left, of course. But, for some reason the mere fact that he has to loosen or tighten something makes him panic.
A couple of years ago we bought a power washer. It wIas electric and it worked decently well for the things we needed it to do - power washing the decks or knocking loose paint off the house were the primary reasons we bought it.
But he didn't like it. For some reason he's not a fan of electric outdoor gizmos to make life easier. I bought myself a small electric snowblower about ten years ago. I was beginning my path of illness and could not seem to yank a pull cord hard enough to start the mower, etc. So, since he refuses to use it, it sits idle and we have to go shovel with regular old shovels. I actually don't mind the workout, but I'm prepared to call 911 if I see him drop from the strain. It's not good for an overweight man to shovel like he's a teenager! I've suggested we sell it...but he doesn't want to, whatever his reasons...most likely the effort it would take to do so. I'll do it someday when I have the opportunity.
So, back to the original story. Monday he actually decided to do something with his vacation instead of watching old football games on the sports channels and sleeping in the recliner. So, even though we don't have any healthy food in the house, he went to the big box lumber store and bought a new, gas-powered power washer. He asked me to help him lift it out of the Jeep.
Things have deteriorated. No one else but me notices, I don't think...but then no one else is around because he has alienated most everyone from coming to our house. We go other places, but seldom have guests.
The first "panic" was as we had lifted the box out and set it down. It wasn't heavy, just awkward. Yet, he was upset because he thought it was too much to move from driveway to grass. I looked at him in puzzlement. "Stick your fingers under the flaps of the box....like *this* and we'll be able to move it."
"Oh....I never would have thought of doing that!"
He opened the box and we lifted the thing out, and then pulled out the other pieces.
I try to be ever mindful of the fact that it bothers him that I've always been the person who does the lumber ordering and the building around here. I should have told him to go fuck himself years ago and just let me do it! But, he grew up with a father who could do things and never bothered to show him how unless it was absolutely necessary.
I asked him if he needed me to help and he said the man who sold him the thing had carefully explained it to him and he would read the instructions. That's fair. He does ask good questions, seems to remember what he's been told, etc. Until it comes down to execution.
I've got things to do, so I headed back into the house. It wasn't long before he came inside and asked me to come out and help him read the instructions. He wasn't sure if everything was there. I went back out and tried to be patient...not my strong suit when these are things he supposedly knows....
And it's not that I'm not patient...it's that I put my "teacher" voice on....and he hates it. So he fusses at me for thinking he's an idiot until I tell him to go fuck himself and do it himself!
At any rate, we finally had this thing together. It took way longer than it should have, but he began to wash the deck. What was finished looks good!
Things were fine until it was time to unhook hoses. I was chatting with my BF in Vermont when he came in....agitated, little short steps, yelling for me. He was almost in tears.
"I have to get pliers. You need to help me. I broke it....I am sure I broke it. I can't get the hose off..." and on and on and on. He ran downstairs to get a pair of pliers. And came up with a big honkin' pipe wrench.
"Let me do it!" I barked at him. He's almost wringing his hands in agony.
I sat down in front of the machine where the hookup is and asked him which way he was turning it. And then he kept telling me I was doing it wrong because it was so tight that I kept switching hands and he was just SURE I was going to break the threads.
Finally after I looked it all over and tested a couple of things I got it loosened enough to know what the correct direction was. I told him that he was not to hook it up until I had hooked it up as something was not right somewhere along the way.
Today I found out what the deal was. It's backwards to the way the average person would hook it up. Most people would hook the hose up sitting in front of the machine. But, the coupling is designed so that one would "righty tighty" it by standing over the machine. So...it's right...but it's not. Especially if one is dyslexic.
I'm not sure if I'm capable of doing this for much longer.
Namaste
.
No comments:
Post a Comment