Man Sh!t

While I was growing up, I watched my father fix stuff around the house. He did stuff with the car, installed stuff in the house, cut the grass, and did things in the yard. Essentially, my dad was a "handy" man, because he was good with his hands around the house. I always thought it was "a man's job" to do those things, even though I grew up as a "liberated woman", knowing that anything a man could do a woman could do it too (sometimes better). Still, my father made it a point to teach my sisters and I how to manage money, check the oil and tire pressure for our cars, change a tire, and do basic things a woman needs to know how to do to stay safe.

I was talking to Charlotte (my girlfriend in Dallas) the other night when the smoke alarm in my house went off again. Earlier in the conversation, I'd told her about the man (an ex-boyfriend) who is coming to my house this Friday to replace my leaking water heater. I mentioned that he (the man) had said I could do it since I'm a chemical engineer. I told her that it wasn't that I couldn't do it, but more that I didn't want to because I think of those things as things a man should do around the house. Here in south LA, they call it "HoneyDos" (say it, listen to yourself, then think about it). I told her that I call it, "Man Sh!t", because I grew up thinking it's sh!t a man's supposed to do.

I was awakened at midnight tonight to the melodious sound of my smoke alarm going off AGAIN. A few people have told me that it's probably time to replace it since it keeps going off the way it does. I put in my ear plugs (gotta protect my hearing) climbed on top of my overstuffed chair's arm beneath the smoke alarm, and pulled the battery out (you know, the one I replaced two months ago hoping it would solve this problem). The damn thing kept going off! Then I noticed that the smoke alarm was supposed to be replaced in 2003 and that the power should be turned off before doing so. I thought to myself, "I don't know anything about replacing smoke alarms! Besides, Walmart is closed (goddamned Katrina) so I can't get a replacement until 7 AM."

I've turned off the power to the damn thing until morning. I'll be knocking on the door of Wally World at 6:58 AM and buying a replacement, hoping I can convince my ex-boyfriend to replace it after he replaces my water heater tomorrow morning since he'll be over here for man sh!t anyway.