Flurry of activity

I taught Daughter Two how to replace the working parts of a toilet today. Never mind that it took two tries because I failed to have her flush the line thoroughly and by the time we figured out we had crud in the pipes from work on the water main on the next block, we had ruined the replacement fill valve. My bad.

The point is that someday when Two’s own toilet fails to flush, she won’t have to wait a couple days for the landlord to get around to fixing it. Nor will she have to pay weekend or evening rates for a plumber. Ten bucks at the hardware store and ten minutes of work and the toilet is once again relief-ready.

When Daughter One had a flat whilst still a student driver, I coached her through changing it. She did just fine and didn’t even complain about getting to her voice lesson with filthy hands.

My daughters are definitely girls. That doesn’t mean they should have to rely on males for the everyday mechanics of life. I didn’t try to make them into boys. But being self-reliant shouldn’t be gender specific.

Proud of both of them.

So, why the title? I wrote this while staying out of the way. Mary is helping Two with final preparations for her post-grad trip to Europe. Since it is now 11:23pm and Two and friend have to be at the airport at 4:00am, I sorta figured my best move would involve hiding in the office, writing.

Of course, I could have stood in the hallway pontificating about the fact that her packing could have been finished earlier, say yesterday. But I opted to remain among the living; hence the hiding.

Moral: When there’s an oh-crap-I-have-to-be-at-Jessica’s-an-hour-ago-and-I’m-not-packed flurry of activity, just stay out of the way and think nice things about the flurriers. It’s kinder this way.

Also, smarter.