My Dad Can Do It

My dad can beat up your dad, this I'm sure of. He has strong hands, arms and shoulders, a low center of gravity to out-leverage any opponent, and he possesses the shear toughness and scrappy attitude of an Irishman. And no one wants to face an angry Irishman, no one. But no matter how strong my dad may seem, his heart lies more on gentler side. I think he'd much rather shake your dad's hand and share some conversation over a bottle of red wine then get involved in some kind of physical altercation. I admire him for having this duality to his personality and, furthermore, applying his never-give-up, jump-in-the-deep end-and-swim-your-way-out resilience and strength to home improvement.

My dad can do a lot of things. Just this weekend he paid us a visit and wound up re-grouting the tile in both of our bathrooms and installing a new sink top with a shiny new faucet. These are tedious jobs that Erika and I just haven't gotten to in the four years that we've lived in our aging house. More important stuff always seems to get in the way like dogs and jobs and dinners at Mexican restaurants and, well, you just push the bathrooms aside to be worked on some other day.

This is where my dad took on his job as a dad. He's not a professional plumber or tile and grout guy but has many years of experience in being a homeowner. And that's what homeowners like him do, they don't call experts and pay them to do a job that they know they can do themselves. My dad gets done what needs to be done. I wouldn't say that he loves to read directions, but he does have a certain knack for being able to figure things out, like finding a way to remove an old sink top and replace it with a new one and reattach the plumbing so that water doesn't leak all over dry rolls of toilet paper and everything else we keep under the bathroom sink.

Above all, my dad isn't afraid to make mistakes. Who amongst us can honestly say that about ourselves? He knows that joint compound was made precisely for repairing dings in the drywall and that forgiveness is always there to be given by those who are willing to give it. And so, for a man whose intentions are whole-heartedly on the side of good, I don't think that he will be fighting your dad anytime soon. It doesn't mean, however, that he wouldn't win.