I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been rather busy with life’s ups and downs.

The Great Cycle Challenge is over and I met my goal of 200 miles by riding 219 miles. However, I didn’t quite meet my monitary goal of $1000 but I did manage to raise over $800.

My son bought a house and he’s driving me nuts with things he’s wanting done in the house. My wife and two daughters spent a week there helping him paint several of the rooms. Now it seems every time he calls he’s wanting something else done. Now it’s hanging a fan, replacing a thermostate, and a multitude of other items that he can’t do himself.

I have failed as a father raising him. My dad made sure that I knew everything there was to know about everything. He made me help him do everything and at the time all I wanted to do is lay around and watch television. I hated him for ruining my sleep espesially on weekends. So as a father I didn’t make my son do things my dad asked me to do and now it’s coming back to haunt me. My son even called me and asked how to cut his grass. I know I’ve taught him how to cut grass but evidently I didn’t.

I appreciate the fact that my son thinks I can do anythiing he asks of me. Most of the things he asks I can do but there are some things I can’t do and I think he doesn’t believe me when I tell him so. For example, he couldn’t get his cable to work in one of his rooms. He asked me to help him fix it. I don’t know much about internet but I told him I’d help him check it out. We worked in his attic for nearly two hours trying to figure it out. Finally, I told him that he’d better call his cable company because it was obivious that we didn’t know what we were doing.

H went to college for five years to get his degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is willing to do the work himself but in most cases he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he gets himself into trouble. Example, at 8 pm the other night he decides he’s going to disconnect his washer and get it ready to move out. He called wanting to know which direction to turn the water off. I told him that even though the water is turned off he would still have pressure on the water hose that feeds the washer. He called again about five minues later telling me that he needs help because he’s flooded his kitchen. As I’m getting ready to leave my house he calls back to tell me that he thinks he’s got it. Five minutes later another call demanding me to come help becuase he’s still getting water out of the hose. I asked him how much and he says a lot of water.

His house is a good 45 minutes away. He’s stated that his kitchen is flooded and the water is getting deep. Thoughts of him having to pay for damages for his appartment as well as the one beneath him is running through my head. I’m wearing a pair of shorts and t shirt. I grab some sandels, my keys, my driver’s license and my tools from my truck and off I went in my wife’s car. Upon my arrival 45 minuets later I find that he has stuck the hose from the faucett into a bucket which is quickly filling up. I took a wrench and grabbed the handle of the valve and turned it a couple of times which caused the water to slow to a steady drip. I stuck the hose from the bucket to the drain in the wall and called it done. That will keep the water from the going on the floor until the appartment manager can call a plumber and replace the valve.

I spent the next half hour helping him clean up the water on the floor. It really wasn’t that bad. His panic made it sound a lot worse than what it was. As we were cleaning up the water we talked about what he could have done differently and what he learned from this experience. I have a rule about doing any type of plumbing work after 5pm. Most hardware places close about that time so if you run into issues then your screwed. Unless it’s an emergency it can wait until the next day. Disconnecting a washing machine is not that difficult but for someone who’s never done it and don’t know what to expect when you have a gate valve that won’t shut off completly can be quite problematic.

Now I’ve got to install a ceiling fan which I’ve never done before but I’m sure between the two of us we can figure it out. I’m proud of my son for what he’s become. He’s smart and willing to try anything. He’s been living in appartments since he’s started college and now he’s bought a house. He’s making more money that I’ve ever made. I’m sure through his many failures he’ll learn what to do and not do and when he get’s to be my age he’ll know more than I know about doing things.