Billy Bragg "Handyman Blues"

The thing about being a homeowner is that you live with wear and tear.

Like that hole in the screen door.

It was a hole first.  Right at the bottom.  I can't even remember how it got there.  Then the kids started kicking at it.  Eventually, it got loose enough that the cat started treating it like a cat door.

And no one was coming to fix it.


I am not handy.

I know this has been a bit of a frustration for my wife, who had hoped that, over the years, I might at least develop some interest in the subject.  (And just to be clear, she is reasonably handy, and very, very willing to try to fix things around the house.  Last Christmas, she asked for, and received, a power sander)

Instead, cabinet handles remain loose.  Sink stoppers are repaired with scotch tape.  Hanging a picture on a wall may require 6 or 7 large nail holes.

I am not handy.  But I am a husband, sympathetic to my wife's wishes.

I stared at that screen door.  I vowed to replace the screen.


Let's just jump ahead here, with some quick edits to the film.

Lots of small cuts on hand.  Staples from staple gun strewn about driveway.  Large, uneven bulges of metal screen protrude from finished door.  The first time it closes, a chunk of wood falls off.

Zoom in on that tear in the new screen, caused by the handyman putting it up.

"Nice work," my wife says sarcastically.


So she didn't marry a handyman.  And that's frustrating sometimes.

But it's okay, too.  And she knows that.

After 8 years of marriage, we've both come to understand that you can't marry someone who can be all things.  Your spouse may be a great cook, a carpenter, an artist, a CEO, a good listener, a party-person, a co-parent, a lover, a business partner or a friend.

They can been several of these things.  But not all of them. 

You trade some minuses for some pluses.

We're happy.  We make each other laugh.  We balance each other out.

After 8 years, our marriage continues to work really, really well.

Even if our screen door doesn't.


You don't get to say this line very often:  "This Billy Bragg song made me laugh!"  But it's pretty true to my life.

Happy Anniversary, baby.


See the video on Youtube.