Passing the Torch

I'm not handy.  Not at all.  As evidence of my lack of general home improvement skills, I give you the shelves in Jay's room.  I've hung and re-hung them four times now and I still can't get them level.  I do have some minor accomplishments: the dining room chandelier, my basement work bench, and my pièce de résistance - the balcony railing I built in our very first house.  If you want to see that railing, I can give you driving directions.  It's worth the trip.

Not only do I have no real home improvement skills, I also am pathetically bad with household technology.  In fact, three of the five television remotes in our house don't work correctly.

So, what does all this mean?  It means I'm letting my sons down, that's what!  When they strike out on their own, they're literally going to strike out.

Last night ,I had another opportunity to pass along some manly skills from father to son.  For his birthday, Jay's friends decided that the perfect gift would be an HDMI cable to update the connection between his PS3 and the basement TV.  After all, what's the point of all that killing in Call of Duty if you can't do it in HD?  So, after eating a piece of birthday ice cream cake, Jay and I headed downstairs.

This seemed like a pretty simple job:

• Step 1 - Remove the AV cable.
• Step 2 - Connect the HDMI cable.
• Step 3 - Turn the power on.
• Step 4 - Enjoy.

Not quite.  After nearly one hour of connecting and disconnecting cables, numerous re-boots of the PS3, and several Google searches, I found myself sitting on the floor, totally defeated.  I couldn't figure the darn thing out.  Jay had hung in there patiently with me, following my instructions to plug in and unplug cords, read out loud from web sites, and silently pray.  Nothing had worked.  We gave up and headed back upstairs.

My sense of failure wasn't quite as bad as what I'd experienced during our last father-son home improvement adventure (when I managed to drill a hole in my left index finger).  But, being unable to perform such a basic household task is not fun, particularly for a father when it happens in front of your son.

When I got home from work today, Jay announced that he and his friend had figured out the connection on their own this afternoon.  It had taken another 90 minutes, but he finally got it.  He may not have inherited any technological savvy from me.  But, he figured out a way to get the job done.  I think he may have learned that from me.  That's something.