Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
July 10th, 2009 at 11:55 am by Dee O'Neil Andrews
Reading Greg’s blog this morning about trying to read and interpret instructions that come with various things reminded me of last weekend here at home with Tom and me.
My daughter Rebecca visited with us a few weeks ago and was much perturbed that we had no full length wall mirror in the house in which she could gaze upon herself to see how beautiful she looked, just like her mother her outfit looked head to toe, shoes, jeans, top, vest, necklace, etc.
So, I bought a beveled mirror at Wally World for Tom to put up in our master bath. It took a while for him to be in the proper mood to put it up, then for us to decide which door to put it on, but we finally did and last Sunday afternoon the planets came into the correct alignment for him to accomplish the task.
Being a man, he got his necessary tools, tape measure, etc out, began tearing the box apart that held the mirror and began measuring. Being a woman, I told him to be careful with the back of the box because there were specific instructions on how to hang said mirror.
Being a man, he told me he did not need instructions to hang a mirror on a door. Being the wife of a man who has totally screwed up run into minor problems with projects before because of not first reading the instructions (the failure to get a side by side refrigerator through the patio door to our previous house without breaking the water dispenser in the door comes to mind), I suggested he read the instructions.
He grumbled. Loudly. I insisted. Persistently.
I won, he read the instructions, got his level out, marked the bottom of the mirror in pencil, drilled holes, screwed in the clips, put the mirror up and sure enough – it was level.
There was one slight problem, though.
The door was not.
The mirror looked terrible and would not fit between the ridges on the door like it was supposed to do.
Tom took the mirror down and I asked him what he was going to do. He calmly (I have to say – I mean, he’s a gem – never gets flustered or aggravated with me enough for it to show, anyway) told me he was going to put the mirror up like he had intended to do in the first place – even with all of the ridges on the door. Except that, this time, it would have to hang just a tad lower to cover up the two holes in the door.
Sure ’nuff. Looks great and now we can both see how we look full length in the mirror on the door in the big bathroom.
Actually – and this was the smartest thing we did – we put the full length mirror on the back of the door to the small linen closet in our master bath rather than on the back of the door to the closet so we don’t have to see ourselves every day coming out of the shower with no clothes on. This way, we can choose to look in the mirror only when we are looking our best.
As for following instructions next time – we’ll see. I’ve got to tally up the score to see who has more wins. Tom’s right 99% of the time, so I can guess.
Dee, it HAS to be in the genes. Guys just don’t like to read directions, unless all else has failed. It’s pretty funny sometimes.
I would rather read the directions first, then if I fail…..guess what? The directions must have been wrong.
Thanks for sharing!
Every now and then we men actually have a good idea and a plan to implement it. What we sometimes lack is the encouragement and confidence of that very special someone in our lives.
One of my Dad’s favorite sayings was “When all else fails, read the directions”. When my Hubby gets to the point that he wants to hear what the directions say, he calls to me “Cipherer”.
I have learned after 20 year of been~in with husband, is right about everything
(even if he’s not)
I’m not a fan of a mirror
hope ya are feeling better
That’s too funny! That’s a good idea to hang a full-length mirror somewhere besides in a bathroom! I hesitate to say where mine is!!
I hate hotel mirrors that catch you right as you come out of the shower or when you’re on the… nevermind.
The worst ones are the ones that ambush you after you enter your dark hotel room. All of a sudden, a chubby, old guy appears in your room! Cowabunga!
Oh, Dee, I posted two videos of wild Quakers on my blog. You might be interested in learning more about the saga of Scooby the Wonder Parrot.