Shiny Objects

Okay, anyone out there seen "Over the Hedge"? If you have, I'm sure you'll remember the Hamy scene where the raccoon used a laser (shiny object) to direct Hamy through the perils of a backyard. You'll also remember that Hamy gets distracted by the cookie.

Follow the shiny object... oooohhhh.... look there is goes, better follow it. Wait... there's another shiny object - let's follow that one now. Sounds just like a two year old, doesn't it? Here's a car, isn't it pretty? Oh look at the other car and now here's a hammer to play with.

Well, it might sound like a kid, but it's actually my husband. Isderf jumps from one project to another just like a kid with a shiny object. In fact it doesn't even have to be a project. The other day we're getting ready to leave, I can't remember at this time where we were going, but we were putting on shoes and coats, grabbing misc. items like purses and phones. Isderf goes to put a pen away in the drawer and his eye is caught by a shiny object. The next thing I know, he's trying to convince the kids to do temporary tattoos. I glare at him and say, "We're leaving." He looks at me like I'm interrupting and then admits it might be bad timing.

He keeps a white board in his garage of possible projects, this way he knows what he's been working on and what needs to be finished. Of course, most of the projects have been up there for a while. For instance... We completely remodeled our bathroom in January of 2008. Remodeled as in pulled out everything down to the studs and rebuilt it. Isderf did really well with his focus and projects for about four months. Most of it was completed and it looks great. Now I said MOST. We decided to trim the inside window with the same kind of wood that our cabinets came in. Isderf found a good piece of maple, cut it and got it to fit, but to this day that piece of wood is hanging out in his garage. No stain, no window trim. On top of that, I won't let him hang the towel bar because it's below the window. Last time we tried putting something up above something else, it got broken.

Since then, he's built the kids treasure boxes and squirrel feeders. He's even helping a friend build the extra parts of a bunkbed. He's used our Cuisinart to shred bean bag foams, which are still sitting on top of the frig outside. We have mold boxes (supposed to fill it with sand to pour hot metal into them) that are collecting water outside and lots of other things piling up.

It doesn't take much to distract him at all. You know, using a chisel and thinking, "I could make one of these." Next thing you know you've got popcorn tin furnaces to melt metals and wood lathe to make handles. Of course, I don't think I've seen an Isderf made chisel at all.

Heck, even cooking breakfast can be catastrophic. "I wonder if you can make soap from bacon?" To answer that question, yes you can. We've done it... but next time we should try to read ALL the instructions before proceeding. It seems someone intended to, but they got distracted. My mother has generously donated 20 lbs of pork fat for our next try, Isderf is ecstatic.

P.S. Someone has pointed out that this may be one sided and make Isderf appears as if he doesn't complete his projects. He actually completes quite a few, they just usually aren't the project we were hoping for. Also, in his defense, he usually has two children tagging along asking him a dozen questions that he likes to answer in a "hands on" approach, which means more projects!