Toilet Seats and Earth Hour 2010

The day started off like most Saturdays. I got out of bed and got my son his breakfast. There was nothing difficult about that, but my next decision would cause me a great deal of frustration. A few days ago our old toilet seat had broken and my wife and I had gone downtown Friday night as part of our date night to pick out a new seat. What a romantic date eh? We enjoyed strolling through the aisles at Kent Building Supply looking for other stuff we wanted but couldn't afford. We settled on a nice economical white toilet seat, and a couple of new light fixtures for the bedrooms. It was a productive trip. When I awoke the next morning I thought "Heck it'll only take me a couple of minutes to change the toilet seat. I'll do that before I have breakfast." Thus began the frustration. Have you ever changed a toilet seat where the bolts are completely rusted. I put the Phillips screwdriver into the slot and turned and the head of the bolt crumbled away. I tried lightly hammering the screwdriver into the bolt but even once I got the screwdriver to hold, I couldn't twist it because the nut was seized and there was no way to get at it. I thought about drilling it out but that made me nervous, as porcelain doesn't react well to drill bits. Finally I borrowed my father's hacksaw, and cut the bolts off. Now if I had of had the saw to start I likely would have saved a great deal of frustration but it was a lesson learned. I am almost certain now that on my next birthday my wife will buy me a hacksaw.

My frustration was quickly relieved and my day from then on went very well. After looking after my sister's two boys for the afternoon, my wife and I planned a quiet night at home. Being Earth Hour that evening we set out some candles and grabbed a book. We relaxed with our daughter in the candlelit living room and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Even after Earth Hour was over we still sat by candlelight and watched a great movie. My frustration from the morning chore was long behind me when I crawled into bed that night and in fact I felt rewarded from all that I had accomplished that day.