Temper Tantrum

The other day, I noticed that the Jimmy-job chart we made a week or so ago still had one thing left on it that wasn't crossed off.

*Change the broken sprinkler head.

I alerted Jimmy of this news and he of course said something like " well, we just gotta get a new sprinkler" so I have learned to say- "That's all you babe." Because in the past, "we" usually ends up being just me. The conversation ended there and I kinda logged it away in my- thatsnevergonnahappen-file.

Wrong! That night, in an effort to fix the sprinkler, my Dear Husband figured he could ninja kick it into submissive working order. Obviously that went well since what resulted was sprinkler genocide and of course a rushing geyser. This is not the first time he tried

banging on something like a frustrated toddler in an effort to repair it. And like a child, he has little-to-no knowledge of how to actually repair anything i.e. the whole square peg-round hole idea. Based on my memory alone, he has also tried this caveman technique on the following: A television, a DVD player, a keyboard, MY camera, a cabinet, a GPS, and my personal favorite was his phone. To quote him: " My phone broke in my hands." To which I of course replied: "You mean, you broke your phone... with your hands."

The next day when I got home from work, he was digging up the sprinkler. As soon as I got out of the car he says: " I need a little hand shovel" So I told him they were in a basket in the shed. On his way walking over he says "Where in the shed?!" I stayed quiet since I figured he

could glance around the 5 x 5 space himself but he asked again so I said. "On the shelf"

"Where? I don't see it"

"Well, if it's not in there, I don't know what to tell you."

"Kat, I need you to help just get up and help!"

He then emerged with a large trenching shovel right as I was about to go look in the shed.

I say "Well, if you are gonna use that I won't bother to look."

"I asked you and you wouldn't move, I told you I needed your help!"

"Well I guess you are good to go then."

"Kat I wanted you to help but you just sat there."

Since I knew this would go back and forth for at least 20 minutes I got up and looked in the shed. No basket, no shovels. I was right, surprisingly! I told him it wasn't there then walked inside. A little while later, he came in holding the broken sprinkler and said, "Where are the new ones?"

"In the bin on the porch I think, if not they are in..."

"Kat, you just need to help me, this is so silly- just come help!" he calls as he is stomping around the house. I managed to sneak the rest of my sentence in:

"...the box in the shed labeled Sprinklers" before he slammed the door.

It may seem cruel that I wouldn't help him dig a small hole, unscrew one sprinkler and screw a new one back in- but if I keep holding his hand through every task, how is my boy ever going to learn to do something on his own? Plus for every 10 things I fix around the house, he fixes 1 and asks 10 questions about it.

Albeit frustrating that he isn't skilled with home repairs, I didn't marry him so that I could save a few bucks on a plumber, (Plus I have 4 brothers and a father who know how to fix any and everything) I married him because I LOVE his childish personality. He is the funniest, most creative, easily amused, spastic, random, and unconditional loving man I have ever known.

So I just gotta laugh at the fact that the sprinkler is still broken.