Smart Is What Comes From Going Full Circle...In 4 Dimensions

So my water heater (it's not a hot water heater it's a water heater that makes hot water...a hot water heater makes steam) started leaking several months ago. I realized this after a nice work top I had ended up with rust stains on it because the damn water heater had rusted out at the bottom seam (it is 11 years old). Thanks to Katrina, it's extremely difficult to find anyone to do anything for anything these days...never mind getting someone to do work in a house, so I've had a hell of a time finding a plumber to come change out my water heater.

While talking to a colleague on Saturday (we were talking about the company Christmas party which was Friday night), he said that he needed to go to Home Depot and I jokingly said, "While you're there, why don't you pick up a water heater for me and drop it off at my house." He asked what was wrong with mine and I told him and he said, "You're a chemical engineer, you can change it out yourself." I said, "Fine, when you go to Home Depot, why don't you pick up a water heater and install it for me." He said he would help me do it. Long story short, we ended up going to Home Depot on Sunday and picked one up.

When we got it to my house (after we got it out of his truck), he was comparing it to the one I already have as I was getting out of my car. He noticed that the one I already have is shorter than the one I'd bought. He said, "Are you sure they're both the same size?" I groaned as I got out of the car (I'd volunteered to help someone gut their house the day before) and said, "Maybe it's [the new water heater] a different diameter." I went in the house to check something, came out and saw he'd pulled out a measuring tape. He was comparing the difference of diameters between the water heaters. I noticed this when I returned to the garage (as I was putting some dirty clothes into my washing machine) and asked him, "So, are they different?" to which he replied, "Yes."

I'd glanced at the two water heaters and remembered playing with some wooden blocks my father gave me when I was a child. He'd given them to me so I could learn about geometry and how it applied to real life. When I finally got to geometry and learned that the volume of a cylinder (which is what a water heater is) is calculated by Pi multiplied by the radius squared multiplied by the height, I understood that when you change the radius (which is half the diameter), to have the same volume you have to comparably change the height.

Later, I was telling him how much I admired him for all he had done in his career and how I recognized how smart he is, he said, "You're much smarter than I am." I said, "I'm not that smart," thinking of my ex-boyfriend (the one I should have married)...the one who's now working four steps down from the CEO of our company. To my colleague I said, "Define smart. Smart is a relative term." He said, "When you think of smart, it's the ability to retain information and use it in real world applications. You are smart. You retain a lot more information than I do, and your ability to apply it to the real world is beyond my comprehension." I thought to myself, "If I'm so smart, why have my relationships with men been so screwed up?"

Yes, I'm smart when it comes to books, but there's something to be said for one's ability to relate to people. All the book smarts in the world won't get you very far if you alienate people along the way. If I'd been smart when I started college, I would have never broken up with my boyfriend (the one I should have married) and married my half-child...but as I said to my ex-boyfriend a couple of days ago, "Those things tend to work themselves out"...and I got that from the colleague who's helping me with my water heater.