{"id":2458634,"date":"2020-05-19T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/sean-beckwith-fixing-those-loose-screws\/"},"modified":"2020-05-19T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T04:40:00","slug":"sean-beckwith-fixing-those-loose-screws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/sean-beckwith-fixing-those-loose-screws\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Beckwith: Fixing those loose screws"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"413\" height=\"620\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/beckwith-atd-032719pdf-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/beckwith-atd-032719pdf-1.jpg 413w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/beckwith-atd-032719pdf-1-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">So Zoom and FaceTime were fun for about two weeks. The novelty lasted about as long as a toy from a kid\u2019s meal. Is that still a thing? Remember toys in the bottom of the box of cereal? I wish we could get rid of face-to-face phone calls as easily as our parents threw out those promo trinkets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I don\u2019t have a standing call with friends or family every Thursday, I\u2019m halfway through a book, I haven\u2019t played nearly as many video games as I thought and my binge of \u201990s action movies and comedies has gotten so low that I\u2019m strongly considering watching \u201cBio-Dome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What have I been doing, though? A lot of amateur handyman tasks. I\u2019ve spackled, sanded and painted walls; hung drapes, pictures and a mirror (sometimes successfully, sometimes not); used my body as a human vice while putting together shelves; successfully cleared a drain (second drain pending); moved beds, packed and repacked storage units; somewhat figured out how to use ratchet straps; and tried to repair multiple objects with superglue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It\u2019s amazing how much you can f\u2014 with a curtain rod when you have a debilitating mix of perfectionism and OCD. I bought a level with a laser on it but not until after semi-successfully hanging a mirror.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The first attempt looked like a funhouse mirror, it was so crooked. While the second attempt went much better, it could still be a tad straighter. There will not be third attempt. There\u2019s nothing charming about doing something three times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I found the stud the previous handyman couldn\u2019t when trying to rehang the drapes. It\u2019s kind of hard to secure anything to a wall when you use eyeglass screws. Turns out I didn\u2019t need that anchor, just a longer screw. But I still forced the anchor into the wall like a small child hammering a round block into the square hole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">My patchwork with spackling and painting went a lot smoother than my attempts at hanging things with a cellphone level. Fill the holes, sand them, paint them. However, when you use a brush to touch up small holes on a wall that\u2019s been painted with a roller, you\u2019re able to see where the repairs were made due to the texture difference. I found that out by looking at the wall in the perfect light at the right angle. Thankfully, that was not my house or I\u2019d be buying a roller.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I considered undertaking a similar project at my place but at this point I\u2019ll live with the plethora of blatantly painted-over anchors for a bit before unleashing my OCD again. That and I haven\u2019t quite yet finished pulling the previous tenant\u2019s hairs out of her paint job in the bathroom, which I\u2019m told is a weird thing to notice let alone do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">If you think that\u2019s bad, my little sister got me a 4,600-plus piece Lego-type replica of Memorial Stadium for my birthday and I applied the decals with a deft touch normally reserved for bomb squad technicians disarming C4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The only reason the newspaper gets sent out before I can adjust every text and photo box to sit perfectly on its gridline is because of deadline. So when I helped put together some cubbies for my closet, it was infuriating that the pieces didn\u2019t slide together like the blocks of the pyramids. C\u2019mon, Target. The Egyptians didn\u2019t even have a laser level, but it takes two people and my entire body weight to screw in the final peg?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I don\u2019t even want to think about putting together this grill I ordered \u2014 though I do think about the grill itself a lot. Get your s\u2014 straight, WayFair*. Packing up and moving out of an apartment shouldn\u2019t take as long as it does to ship my order \u2014 and I spent a good two hours watching YouTube tutorials on ratchet straps while untangling them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It is rewarding finishing DIY handy work, but it\u2019s equally frustrating when you can\u2019t fix a seemingly easy problem, like a slow-draining sink, so I won\u2019t get into that. If I can\u2019t correct a plumbing issue with a plunger and some Drain-O, it\u2019s time for an expert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That\u2019s why I\u2019ve moved on to the home and garden portion of my coronavirus checklist. The good thing about plants is they don\u2019t require a ton of upkeep \u2026 right?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">*I understand some packages are more important than others during a pandemic but there doesn\u2019t seem to be any defined hierarchy. Cocktails cherries in two days but a month for a laser level?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Sean Beckwith is a copy editor at The Aspen Times. Reach him at <a href=\"mailto:sbeckwith@aspentimes.com\">sbeckwith@aspentimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/sean-beckwith-fixing-those-loose-screws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So Zoom and FaceTime were fun for about two weeks. The novelty lasted about as long as a toy from a kid\u2019s meal. Is that still a thing? Remember toys in the bottom of the box of cereal? I wish we could get rid of face-to-face phone calls as easily as our parents threw out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 11:27:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}