So very, very handy
Let me tell you a little bit about Train Guy. He’s 50% OCD and 50% ADD. It’s an interesting combination and can work well in his profession which is research/engineering/lasers stuff (vague enough for you?). TG can fix anything or will die trying. His at home helpfulness specialty is fixing any object that has electricity running through it.
For example, in my basement I had a broken dehumidifier that I couldn’t throw out in the trash and so I’ve been waiting for the Hazardous Waste pick up day. TG sees the dehumidifier, asks what’s wrong and I reply with, “It’s broken.”
I went down to the basement the next day and in the middle of the floor was every single piece of the dehumidifier arranged on the floor. Every screw, wire, EVERYTHING. Also surrounding this was water and my good NO LONGER WHITE towels mashed into mud puddles sopping up the mess.
“UH, TG? WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“It wasn’t broken. The thingamajig had come loose from the thingabob and the doohickey needed blah, blah, blah, blah,blah…”
“So it WAS broken and now you fixed it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, since you fixed it I won’t give you a hard time for cleaning up your mess with my GOOD towels.”
“Oops.”
Here’s an example of his ADD. We now have 50 different projects in various states of completion all over the house. He sees a project and starts it and then thinks of another that can be started that might be more interesting, drops the first one, starts the second one and so on and so forth. Now I must admit he’s not one of those guys (and I’ve dated quite a few) who starts a project and never finishes. Oh DEAR GOD NO. Because then the OCD kicks in and he realizes they all need to be finished NOW. He needs to finish every single one of them. He can’t sit still. To the degree that I have to pull him away to make him go to sleep while repeating, "Don't worry it will still be there in the morning." We actually never go to the movies because he can’t sit still thru one. Renting one is a pain but I’ve learned that pausing a movie is just what has to happen with him while a fly or the idea of a new project gets his attention and he wanders away. I’ve gotten used to it and respect it as much as it annoys the living daylights out of me. But I digress.
One other person who is really benefiting from all of TG’s ADD/OCDness is my Father.
My Father has a MILD version of what TG has. He was always building something, hammering, working on something. Whether it’s his gardening or Mom needed a new bookshelf built or the car needed fixing my Dad could do it. Now that he’s gotten older he doesn’t do it as much but there are some things he doesn’t understand as well as SAYYYYY, Train Guy.
Now my Dad calls the house and asks for TG. “Hi, is TG there? I have a computer question.” Or a TV/DVD question or a phone question or anything that involves wire question. And TG loves to help out. “No problem, K! Just do XYZ” OR “I’ll be right over!” And then he drops whatever he's working on and goes over to start one of Dad's projects.
This is odd for me. Neither of my parents ever gave a rat’s ass about who I was dating. They always stayed out of my and my sister’s relationships. They never offered advice, never asked questions, never paid any attention to the guy. Nothing. I actually asked my parents what they thought when I told them TG was moving in and my Mother said, “Well, as long as you’re happy that’s all that counts.” End of story. They were always nice and polite but just never really cared about the boyfriends. Until now. Now I see my parents as actually LIKING TG which makes me unbelievably happy.
So my sister, J, is flying in to Philly today with her daughter, O, and they’re going to stay a week. We’re all really thrilled and have been checking the weather every hour since Dallas (where my sister lives) is under 100 miles of water and is expecting storms and so are we. So Dad calls and says…
“Your sister says the flight is on time. She also asked if we had one of those little handheld recorders. Apparently O likes J to read her stories into it at night and then when they go on trips O plays the stories back. J wanted to know if we had an extra recorder because hers is broken.”
“Oh, sorry, Dad, I don’t have one.”
“Oh, no, that’s OK. I told her to pack the broken one because we have Train Guy. And he can fix anything.”
Seriously, I’ve never been happier. And don’t even get me started on when my Mom calls to ask TG exactly how he makes his stuffed Portobello mushrooms with balsamic vinegar reduction… YEESH.
For example, in my basement I had a broken dehumidifier that I couldn’t throw out in the trash and so I’ve been waiting for the Hazardous Waste pick up day. TG sees the dehumidifier, asks what’s wrong and I reply with, “It’s broken.”
I went down to the basement the next day and in the middle of the floor was every single piece of the dehumidifier arranged on the floor. Every screw, wire, EVERYTHING. Also surrounding this was water and my good NO LONGER WHITE towels mashed into mud puddles sopping up the mess.
“UH, TG? WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“It wasn’t broken. The thingamajig had come loose from the thingabob and the doohickey needed blah, blah, blah, blah,blah…”
“So it WAS broken and now you fixed it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, since you fixed it I won’t give you a hard time for cleaning up your mess with my GOOD towels.”
“Oops.”
Here’s an example of his ADD. We now have 50 different projects in various states of completion all over the house. He sees a project and starts it and then thinks of another that can be started that might be more interesting, drops the first one, starts the second one and so on and so forth. Now I must admit he’s not one of those guys (and I’ve dated quite a few) who starts a project and never finishes. Oh DEAR GOD NO. Because then the OCD kicks in and he realizes they all need to be finished NOW. He needs to finish every single one of them. He can’t sit still. To the degree that I have to pull him away to make him go to sleep while repeating, "Don't worry it will still be there in the morning." We actually never go to the movies because he can’t sit still thru one. Renting one is a pain but I’ve learned that pausing a movie is just what has to happen with him while a fly or the idea of a new project gets his attention and he wanders away. I’ve gotten used to it and respect it as much as it annoys the living daylights out of me. But I digress.
One other person who is really benefiting from all of TG’s ADD/OCDness is my Father.
My Father has a MILD version of what TG has. He was always building something, hammering, working on something. Whether it’s his gardening or Mom needed a new bookshelf built or the car needed fixing my Dad could do it. Now that he’s gotten older he doesn’t do it as much but there are some things he doesn’t understand as well as SAYYYYY, Train Guy.
Now my Dad calls the house and asks for TG. “Hi, is TG there? I have a computer question.” Or a TV/DVD question or a phone question or anything that involves wire question. And TG loves to help out. “No problem, K! Just do XYZ” OR “I’ll be right over!” And then he drops whatever he's working on and goes over to start one of Dad's projects.
This is odd for me. Neither of my parents ever gave a rat’s ass about who I was dating. They always stayed out of my and my sister’s relationships. They never offered advice, never asked questions, never paid any attention to the guy. Nothing. I actually asked my parents what they thought when I told them TG was moving in and my Mother said, “Well, as long as you’re happy that’s all that counts.” End of story. They were always nice and polite but just never really cared about the boyfriends. Until now. Now I see my parents as actually LIKING TG which makes me unbelievably happy.
So my sister, J, is flying in to Philly today with her daughter, O, and they’re going to stay a week. We’re all really thrilled and have been checking the weather every hour since Dallas (where my sister lives) is under 100 miles of water and is expecting storms and so are we. So Dad calls and says…
“Your sister says the flight is on time. She also asked if we had one of those little handheld recorders. Apparently O likes J to read her stories into it at night and then when they go on trips O plays the stories back. J wanted to know if we had an extra recorder because hers is broken.”
“Oh, sorry, Dad, I don’t have one.”
“Oh, no, that’s OK. I told her to pack the broken one because we have Train Guy. And he can fix anything.”
Seriously, I’ve never been happier. And don’t even get me started on when my Mom calls to ask TG exactly how he makes his stuffed Portobello mushrooms with balsamic vinegar reduction… YEESH.
posted by E at
Thursday, July 05, 2007
1 Comments
