Early on in life when kids don’t know how to do things, they simply ask their parents for help. Mom and dad knew everything. They were the one informational source that was always there ready to answer any question.
For my brothers, The Sister and me, our parents were constantly answering questions or showing us how to perform the simplest to the most complicated task. Sadly, they are both now gone, but my need to be shown how to do things has not. So now where do I turn for the answers?
Welcome to YouTube — the one source that can show even an old guy like me how to build or fix just about anything. And with our two granddaughters, Little One and Sweet Caroline, seems I’ve been doing a lot of both lately with no end in sight.
Over two years ago, the work in the backyard started. The task was to turn an overgrown forest into a backyard paradise. A giant sandbox with folding benches had to be built first. Then a basketball court made out of pavers had to be laid. Then build a challenging three-hole goofy golf course ending in a climbing tower with a zip line high overhead. A romantic swing for The Wife was constructed then walkways of pavers connecting all the different levels and landscape lighting to illuminate it all.
How do you do this if you don’t even know where to start? YouTube it.
Go to YouTube on your computer and search any of the above tasks. The search results will give you countless videos of folks from all over the world happy to show you step by step how to do anything.
I want to add a pond with a waterfall but have no idea how to do it. YouTube it. Now I know. But it’s not just useful for outside; YouTube can assist you on the inside too.
Somehow Ryder, from the kids’ show “Paw Patrol,” keeps getting stuck in the girl’s bathtub drain along with an assortment of miniature dinosaurs. YouTube and Ken from the Big Ken Tool and Hunting Show showed me how to unstop bathtub drains.
After Ken’s video, my new plumbing skills retrieved Ryder, and all the dinosaurs who had gone in to rescue him. And I’m not gonna say what got stuck in the toilet. Unfortunately the toilet had to be replaced, but it was no problem. I just watched Ken’s video “Toilet Repair Number Two.”
During the last month I’ve asked kids in our house the following: “What happened to the missing bathtub faucet?” “Why is the kitchen cabinet door no longer closing and on its last hinge?” “How did the hole get in the wall?” And my favorite, “What happened to the unbreakable lamp?”
YouTube showed me how to fix everything broken by that “I Dunno” kid who lives in our house.
As good of a teacher YouTube is, there’s still one thing it can’t do that my parents could. Pay for all the repairs.
[Rick Ryckeley has been writing stories since 2001. To read more of Rick’s stories, visit his blog: storiesbyrick.wordpress.com.]
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