Gasant Abarder spent a painful weekend finding out that there is great merit in the notion that one should stay in one’s lane while he was attempting a few DIY projects around the house. In his latest #SliceofGasant column he reflects on how he should perhaps pack up his do-it-yourself habits and create a dent in our dire joblessness situation by hiring the pros to do the work.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here.
I’m writing this with painful hands. With what feels like arthritis, in fact, a spot of tendinitis en alles wat nie oraait is. I am regretting my choices over the weekend because instead of rest and relaxation, I spent it doing DIY projects around the house.
I threw myself into household projects because I dared not think of December, when my current contract of employment runs out. I have big choices to make, but job prospects are slim, and my dream of starting my own consultancy isn’t a realistic option right now.
So, this weekend I set out to fell a few trees around the property. Look, I know my limits, and I was never going to tackle the giant, six-metre-high tree in the front of the property with several branches arching over electric fences, power lines and boundary walls.
I removed the smaller ones around the house, but it was Sunday, and the tool hire places were closed. So, I had a hacksaw, not a chainsaw. Like Rocky Balbao, I was sawing down trees and making similar sounds as he did when he punched cow carcasses at his brother-in-law’s abattoir job.
I got the smaller trees out (with loads of help from my own brother-in-law) before it was time to go inside and hang a TV bracket in my daughter’s room. I pride myself on having a tool for every job, mostly, albeit not a chainsaw. So, I took out my 15-year-old drill and started the job after carefully marking out the holes. Then, an explosion and a power failure.
Had I been Billy the Kid, it couldn’t have been a cleaner shot. I drilled straight into a plug wire. It was the bull’s eye out of every inch of wall I could have chosen. It was time to step away from the tools.
Luckily, my friend and electrician, Ebrahim Bailey was in the area and when he saw my handiwork, he just shook his head. Lesson: Don’t just drill into a wall. Check the proximity to plugs or light switches. EB was able to fix things quickly but not without chipping a hole in the wall.
Secretly, I was wishing my drill had died so I could get a fancier, newer model. It has served me well, and shame on me for thinking it would give up on me as easily as I did on it. I can’t help myself. At Builder’s Warehouse, I’m like a kid in a sweet store. They’ve worked out how to place all the things you don’t really need but want in the bargain bins while you queue for ages because they have two cashiers on duty when muppets like me need DIY material because it’s the weekend.
Hitting the plug wire was a bit of bad luck. It could happen to any part-timer without a cable detector tool. But I learned that specialist jobs like fixing the electricity are best left to the professionals, and trying it yourself will become more costly or even a fatal affair.
Two gentlemen, named Stanley and Isaac, respectively, who have businesses that expertly remove trees, came to quote me later on Sunday about removing the giant in the front garden. Both were so knowledgeable about their work, the names of trees, what their roots do and so much more. I didn’t feel like their quotes were over-the-top, considering the amount of work and thought involved removing the tree.
The weekend taught me there is value in staying in one’s lane. I am not built for manual labour and I can’t add. This is why I write for a living, and maybe I should take better care of my hands and digits so I can continue holding a pen or typing.
The DIY distraction was about dignity in the face of potentially joining the ranks of the unemployed for the first time in my life this January. It allowed me a distraction, so I didn’t have to think. Jobs give dignity, as radio personality Ryan O’Connor reminded me yesterday on his Smile 90.4 breakfast show. O’Connor is attempting to create 10 000 jobs by linking work with the unemployed, using his excellent platform to do so.
It got me thinking about the senseless crimes and suicide rate. A third of our country is unemployed, and it’s not a leap to think the two could be connected.
So, I’ll be doing my bit by hiring professionals to do the jobs I can’t and staying in my lane. For now, I will have a moratorium on expanding my tool collection. Jeepers, my muscles and joints will be grateful.
Also read:
Sold up and sold out: The Abarders are moving to the Southern Suburbs
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