Mr. Fix-it

My dear husband has many attributes, clever businessman, quick wit, great golfer, even tempered and a wonderful friend and lover. However, there remains a skill that he has never quite mastered and now with Alzheimer's slowly robbing him of certain basic skills it has gotten worse....his ability to fix things.

This is not to say that he doesn't attempt to fix something, he does with great determination. The joke used to be....if anything needs repair, do not under any circumstances tell George. Plumbers, electricians would be called in secret before he would find out about the broken faucet or burned out outlet. Sometimes, they would be called in to repair his repairs.

Now fear strikes in my heart when I hear him say...."honey, I fixed it". Last night, as he was cleaning up after dinner (which he does lovingly for me) he came to me holding the sink faucet in hand. As he observed my look of horror, he reassured me...he would fix it. Not knowing how he managed to pull the faucet out of its place...."it came off in my hands" I tried to figure out the parts and pieces as we tried in vain to put it all back together. There were a couple of extra parts that didn't seem to fit.

Now I can pretty much figure out how things are put together, having had to be the one to read assembly instructions to my mate as we tag teamed in assembling various complicated storage units, kids toys and the like. But here I had some rubber parts that didn't look to be a part of this unit. He kept trying to fit the round pegs in the square hole. I kept asking again and again, where did you get this part? His confusion and distress kept getting worse. I looked around and discovered where he had gotten the extra parts....from the sink drain. I surmised that he had taken the drain apart in order to fix the faucet. I started to laugh. My Mister Fix-it was at it again.

The plumber has been called.

We, his family, call him the "duct tape king", which is his tool of choice. I have now hidden all the duct tape from him...sometimes it is a matter of survival.