May 31, 2019 – “That was clever . . . .”

         My husband commented.

         I am on the 4-step of the stepladder handing down a blown out recessed bulb to my husband.  I am thinking darn right I am clever, who lost the suction cup that came with the original recessed bulbs and the light fixture, not me.

         I had to improvise with something so I could manage to unscrew the bulb because my small fingers can’t get into the socket area.  Fat chance of my husband doing this, with his big fingers.

         I now realized I wasted my time and treasure tying a one-foot length of burgundy, picot edged ribbon to the suction cup and wrapping it around the partially used package of new bulbs.  I’ve used that suction cup many times over the 6 or 8 years we’ve owned this light fixture. The ribbon has been on it since the beginning for a reason – so I can find it.

         Who dug in the china cabinet and found the package of bulbs?  Of course, my husband, and what happened to the picot ribbon with the suction cup that was wrapped around it?  The fairies must have taken it as it has simply vanished.  I have looked everywhere, even in the stupidest places - places a man’s mind would put something.

         My husband hands me up a new bulb, I adhere the wedge of packing tape I used on the blown out bulb onto the face of the new bulb, and I adeptly put the bulb into the prong slot and tighten it using the wedge of packing tape as the leverage, then I peel off the tape.

         “Viola!” I announce and proceed to do a second bulb.

         I climb down the ladder and still wonder where that suction cup is.  I notice my husband heading to the trashcan.

         “Don’t throw that empty package out – I have to get the same kind of bulbs and I need to know what I am buying . . .” I snatch it out of his hand.

         “Men and their logic,” I mutter.

         Why am I telling you this little vignette of typical domesticated married life?  I noticed something in an advertisement for BottomLine personal – a publication that was marked “Don’t get mad, get even!”

         I am one of those people that occasionally reads their junk mail when it is too hot outside to do anything productive in the gardens.  How could I resist a front cover that reads, “It’s OK to get mad says Harvard psychologist, but we say it’s even better to get even.”

         On page 11 of Volume 40, Number 9, is a picture of a roll of duct tape with a blurb:

         “Don’t get mad when a recessed bulb goes out . . . get duct tape!”

         It made me smile, about my packing tape cleverness of yesterday morning. Here is what they say to do.

Recessed bulbs can be so frustrating to replace. But here’s a trick that makes it easy.  Fold the ends of a piece of duct tape back over themselves, leaving a sticky section in the middle.  After putting the sticky section on the bulb, grab the ends of the duct tape and twist.

         It was nice to see that some other clever person came up with the same idea I had when I used packing tape.  [I’ve already bought new bulbs and two, yes, two suction cups to be hidden in two different places so they don’t disappear.]

         When writing this blog I decided to check the definition of clever to see if another word might describe how I feel.

         The internet gave me a cornucopia of adjectives:

          quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; 

             intelligent.

             skilled at doing or achieving something; talented

             showing intelligence or skill; ingenious

intelligent, gifted, precocious; capable, able, competent, apt, proficient; educated, learned, erudite, academic, bookish, knowledgeable, wise, sagacious, brainy, genius, skillful, dexterous, adroit, deft, nimble, nimble-fingered, handy, adept; skilled, talented, shrewd, astute, sharp, acute, quick, sharp-witted, quick-witted; resourceful, canny, cunning, crafty, artful, wily, slick, neat; foxy, savvy, fly, pawky, as sharp as a tack.

         Now I feel clever doesn’t seem to cover my impromptu packing-tape-light-bulb-change.

         Morale of the story:  Celebrate your accomplishments – no matter how large or small.

         The next time you do something resourceful know that you are more than clever, you are intelligent, talented and ingenious, or possibly most of the above synonyms.