Household hacks. They seem to be all around the internet, although, I must say, they do not seem as “prevalent” on FB and social media as they once did. I’ll blame this on the Trump presidency. For four years, his presidency bombarded every media and social media outlet on the planet. There was no room for much else.
Before those days, we could tune into Facebook and see how a paperclip could be used to tame bra straps, fix bracelets, hold up iPhones, and unzip zippers, all in 30 seconds.
In fact, while writing this, I was sucked into watching a 12-minute video on household hacks, where (among other things) I learned that toothpaste could remove writing on a painted wall. So, the next time I see the writing on the wall, I’ll grab my tube of Crest.
Hacks. I’m not sure when we started calling them hacks. It used to be, when someone hacked, it was a highly unpleasant experience for everyone involved.
Anyway, the DIY Channel got a hold of civilization, and it changed everything.
Let me point out that when we were growing up, everything was DIY. I don’t ever remember a “serviceman” of any variety coming to our house for anything. My dad would just fix things. And most of the time, he would show us kids how to fix them too.
I broke every toe, plus more, in my left foot when I was about three or four years old. We were building a little brick wall at our house that would eventually act as a border for a flower bed, stretching across the front. We never really had flowers there, just ugly, scrubby bushes. Anyway, I was stubbornly carrying four bricks right after my dad told me to carry one at a time. I dropped them on my bare foot and crushed those little bones. It is one DIY I will never forget.
These days, I’m getting smarter. There was a time when I would face a home project and go at full steam ahead. I’d size up the project and say to myself, “Polly, you are a smart girl. You can figure this out.” More often than not, my carpentry / wiring / plumbing skills would fail me, because basically, I had none. Now, I call an expert.
However, some things I still handle on my own. For instance, fruit flies. Every summer, we seem to get a stray one, here and there. But a few days ago, we were bombarded by fruit flies. Those little buggers are everywhere.
Now, I know I’ve said that I won’t kill animals. And they are just doing what they are meant to do. But for crying out loud, when they nose-dive into my mayonnaise jar while I’m making a turkey sandwich, it is all-out war.
Thank goodness for the internet. I’ve learned that you can fill a small bowl with apple cider vinegar and two drops of dish soap. Stir well. And, viola. Your fruit fly problem is over.
In theory.
A few have met their demise. However, there are some just sitting on the side of that bowl, smiling, flipping me off.
I should point out that on today’s date, August 5, 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was completed. The laying of the cable on the ocean floor was finished. It took 19 years of planning and hard work to accomplish the feat. And then, three weeks later, it failed. For good. There were no hacks.
It was the first time to lay such a cable. They really didn’t know what they were doing, so I’d classify the project as one huge DIY.
I guess I should not feel so back that my Fruit Fly Death Trap didn’t work.
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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
― Thomas A. Edison
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“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Winston S. Churchill
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“All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
― Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho
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Hack this. Hack that.
