« The Paradox I Have Pondered | Main | Spazzing out. »
April 13, 2007
“The more you do, the more you do”
And other words of wisdom from my dad
It’s very indicative of my current mental state that when I first sat down to write about paradoxes, the first thing that popped into my mind was, “The worse a food product is for you, the better it tastes.” But trust me, right now a post about Ben & Jerry’s Marsha Marsha Marshmallow and dark chocolate Easter bunnies would be starting down a dangerously slippery slope.
So I’m going to pour myself a big, tasty bowl of organic granola, take a deep cleansing breath and blog about my dad and home improvement projects. (This month at Literary Chicks was apparently brought o you, by Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Ikea!)
The thing about my family is that we’re all very verbal. My mother, sister and I are all former English Lit majors who love to read and write and thumb through our dogeared copies of Jane Eyre when we have the flu. My brother is a lawyer who basically gets paid to debate all day, which is his dream career.
The odd man out is my dad, the engineer. He loves numbers, theorems, logical chains of cause-and-effect. You’d think at least one of us kids would take after him, but nope. He long ago resigned himself to being constantly inundated with the flimsy abstraction of words, words, words. So my dad and I have never been able to connect about how much we both love Newtonian physics or the latest Nick Hornby novel.
Instead, we bond over our shared loathing of home improvement projects.
That’s one of the perks of being a former engineer: my dad knows how to fix everything. I don’t think he has ever called a plumber or a contractor, and to suggest that he do so would be akin to spitting in his face. He knows how to replace a toilet, hang a door, rewire an entire house. He is capable of building bookcases, installing a truck engine, and resuscitating a flatlining computer hard drive.
He just has to curse like a longshoreman the entire time he’s doing it. In this respect, I am truly my father’s daughter.
Here are some of his more quotable sayings:
Referring to anything as “a shoemaker job” (i.e., substandard to the quality of work he himself would have done. See also: hiring a professional plumber or contractor.)
“A blind man would be glad to see it” (i.e., it ain’t pretty, but it works. See also: rewiring an entire house.)
“The more you do, the more you do”
This last is his favorite, and it has basically become our family motto. If we had a family crest and shield, these words would be scrolled under them. Any time Mr. Tall and I break out a hammer or a can of paint, at least one of us has to intone darkly, “The more you do, the more you do.” Meaning, you start out innocently enough, intending to paint the guest room, and next thing you know, you decide that as long as you’re at it, you may as well replace the ceiling fan, sand down the closet doors, get the carpet steamed, and hey, that window screen has a pretty big tear in it, and you know, if you’re going to spend all this time and effort spiffing up the guest room, you might as well go ahead and give the same treatment to the master bedroom…
Next thing you know, it’s two months later and you’re making three trips a day to Home Depot with no end in sight.
The more you do, the more you do. So simple, so contradictory, so very true. (Love you, Dad!)
This blog was brought to you by The Prada Pardox, Julie’s hip, funny novel about sex, adventure and fashion – not necessarily in that order.
Posted by Beth at 11:39 PM | Comments (2)
Comments
"The more you do, the more you do"
Beth, I have to say that I really resonate with this :-) I can't redecorate one room, it has to be an all or nothing situation in our house/apartment. And all the walls in every room are the same color (off white). It's kind of logical when you think about it...
Posted by: Michelle C at April 17, 2007 3:08 PM
Hmmm. We are in the midst of a major bathroom remodel, and no, we are not handy that way so we have workmen coming in . Every day. But of course, now that we are making the bathroom glorious we are looking at the hallway leading to the bathroom and making comments about the tacky wall paper and carpet and how nice it would look without either and some paint and the same flooring that is in the kitchen/family room. Then we look at the fluffy crap on the ceilings an figure if we are going to strip the walls and floors we should do the ceilings as well...
"The more you do, the more you do"--that is a perfect sentiment. You didn't mention that your dad was a genius as well! *wink*
Posted by: Sheri at April 22, 2007 11:49 AM
