Oh, those little words

When I was a younger man, my wife and I decided to finish the partially completed basement of our house. I already had some experience and understanding of carpentry, but still had much to learn. I nailed up the walls, put in some insulation and began to throw up the sheet rock.

Overall things went well, but I found many opportunities to re-do much of my efforts. I cut his stud too long, the next one too short. Once I finally got it just right, I would split the wood while nailing it in (grrrrr). Bent nails? Yep, I had a whole box of them. Sink this nail, bend the next, drive one home, bend the next three. (I guess I should have used a nail gun instead of swinging a hammer.)

I decided to put up the sheetrock using screws. I thought I would do much better than with hammer and nails. I still found opportunity to re-do some work. Drive this screw just right, the next four I would send too deep through the paper (double grrrrr).

One evening, when I got home from work, my wife asked me to follow her downstairs in order to discuss some of my wonderful work. With a certain amount of pride, I walked down the stairs with gloating anticipation. She picked up a sheetrock screw and walked over to one of the recently completed walls.

Showing me the screw, she demonstrated what she had observed that day. My young son (about two years old) would squat by each screw hole in my sheetrock and touch the end of a screw to it. Each time reciting the words "damn it". Hmmm, one must wonder where a child so young would pick up such a filthy vocabulary. Gladly, we were able to break him of that habit!!