The idea person

That’s me.

I’m full of ideas that would be wonderful for other people to carry out.

I can’t carry these ideas out for a variety of reasons. Mostly variations on incompetence.

Someone ought to drag our deck back 3 feet so we have more room for the pool this summer (the deck is freestanding). I can’t do this because I have no idea how leverage works & would chain the wrong part of the deck to the wrong part of the tractor and end up breaking one or both of them

Someone needs to get cracking on building that mud room off the kitchen we’ve been talking about. I can’t do it because I am spatially and algebraically impaired and figuring out things like square footage of siding versus the amount of 2x6s for framing is beyond me.

And I am afraid of the circular saw.

But hand me some precut boards and tell me where to hammer them and I’m all over it.

Someone needs to sand down the wooden top of the island in the kitchen so it can be resealed. I can’t do it because I get carried away with making everything smooth and level and end up sanding away far too much wood. And the sawdust sets off my asthma, even with a mask.

I am great at sealing though.

Someone ought to finish that quilt I made as a wedding gift for my brother & SIL.

In 2002.

I can’t because again, the spatial impairment makes it almost impossible for me to figure out how to fold up the sides of the quilt while machine quilting and yet still get the material to fit under the arm of the sewing machine and around my lap at the same time.

Speaking of my brother…

This July is my parents 45th wedding anniversary. That’s a big one really so SOMETHING needs to be done. I have an idea, but due to circumstances, my brother is better placed to do all the work.

I did that to him for their 40th wedding anniversary too. I thought having a big dinner party at Oglebay for all their friends would be nice. But I live 6 hours away. And my brother does business with Oglebay so he could get a deal. And he knows my parents friends better than I do being that he stayed in our home down and I left when I was 18 and rarely returned for more than 48 hours. So he was in a better position to know what sort of dinner would be best & who to invite

So naturally it made sense for him to do most of the leg work of organizing & planning. I sent out the invitations.

I feel guilty dumping the work on my brother but really, my idea this year needs contacts, just like last time. I don’t have contacts in my hometown anymore. At one point a large number of my brother’s friends did not even know he had an older sister.

That is a measure of how fast I left town & how well I kept in touch with people.

I want to do a professional family photo session for my parents in July, up at Oglebay. (Our family photo from 1983 was taken there. I was married there. My brother had his wedding photos there. Lots of stuff in our lives happened there) We’ll all be in town for 4-5 days then and I think spending a couple hours getting individual, group & family photos would be a great gift. My  idea is that my brother & I pay for a large canvas of the whole family (or whatever size my folks want) and to have a bunch of photos of the kids and us for them and for us.

But my brother has to find the photographer. I know diddly about photographers in my hometown & being my brother probably he can get a deal on the cost.

I can’t do it because I am incompetent at the people skills the rest of my family enjoy.

But I am damn good at ideas.