I can handle tools of all sorts�with varying degrees of success. Admittedly, I�m not Outfoxed and Day-Hay is not his trusty sidekick Stu, but then one can�t expect to be so wonderful. One deals with one�s own situation�and Day-Hay and I got the cheap cabinet I bought for the bathroom together, more or less. (The missing piece is bracketing it to the wall but I can�t because the resident stud has hidden the stud finder, which leaves me in far more difficulty than I care to contemplate.)

Our achievement would be worthy of beer and a local watering hole but neither Day-Hay nor I care for beer or a local watering hole (although if you promise her a Sprecher root beer she might follow you anywhere.) I think I�ll have to pay her off in a trip to Baskin-Robbins. Her help was that essential and she was cheerful about giving it. She didn�t even get teary, which makes one of us, and she didn�t curse, which also makes one of us.

As with all these projects with cheap cabinetry, the manufacturer did not supply all the pieces. Luckily, the missing pieces were three 1 � inch wood screws. There was a number to call the company but I was not going to walk through multiple menus and wait three weeks for wood screws. I know I�m not very good at figuring widths but I�ve learned what to do. I did what any thinking person would do. I took one of the screws with me, matched it, paid my thirty cents and hurried home for more frustration.

Day-Hay saved me from some of the frustration. She did some of the screwing. She held pieces. She figured out which piece was which and, more important, she helped me tell the right side from the left. I have a little problem with left and right. (Actually, I have a big problem with left and right but it�s best minimalized. I�m not letting that particular learning disability stop me from doing anything except teaching children left and right. We all have our �areas of need� or whatever the politically correct term is these days.) She couldn�t save me from all of it. The only way to do that would have been to have disconnected a wire so the car wouldn�t start when I went to get the thing.

But, with a little help from a stud and a stud finder, whichever I locate first, it will be all right. I�ll have more storage space in the girls� bathroom. It will be tidier�at least until the junk expands to fill the space allotted. Talk about frustration!

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