Day 4: "Call your dad"

Paul and I had a little project to do this afternoon. We recently purchased this switch to replace the light switch for the outside lights. For most DIY-ers, it would take about 10 minutes to complete--turn off power, unhook one switch, hook up new switch, turn on power. And continue with the rest of your day.

Because we aren't the handiest of people, we typically plan for at least three times as long to complete any project. After 30 minutes, one fuss over which switch to flip in the fuse box to turn off the power and why do I need to flip the switch back on if we know the power is off just to check to make sure that's the correct switch, and both of us staring at the electrical box trying to decide what order to hook up the black-blue-white wires since we have a black-red-white combo, we decided that we need to enlist the help of either of our dads or my granddad C. who was an electrician back in the day and still can't feel a 110-volt jolt. Seriously--as soon as we pulled unhooked the light switch and saw that the wires didn't jibe, Paul said, "Why don't you call your dad?" You know--because my dad who is 1000 miles away will totally be able to fix this problem and hook up a light switch (Paul's reasoning: Dad helped installed a couple of dimmer switches during one visit). Paul's parents will be home on Tuesday. Maybe his dad will be able to figure out this conundrum. In the meantime, our fancy new timer switch with latitude/longitude coordinates is back in it's packaging, taunting us with its super-simple instructions and blue wire, letting us know that, once again, we are proving ourselves to be the Worst Adults Ever.