Methods

Methods

“This is a waste of time.”

“We have the time to waste…” Dad said reaching for the sander.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect. I just want to try it. I might not even like it.”

“You take after your grandmother.”

“I… What?”

“You take after your grandmother.”

“Where did that come from?”

“Your impatience. Your grandmother also has very little patience. When she has an idea, she jumps on it. She will toss together some solution to her thought, just to see if it works.”

“What’s the matter with that?”

“Well, if her idea was good, she just keeps using the slapped together one, because it works, and she didn’t need to take the time to make a good one.”

“You mean like that shelf on top of her desk?”

“Exactly. It’s a board, that doesn’t really fit, with one broken end. But it holds up her TV so she can watch stuff while she’s working at her desk, and also see that TV from that sofa in the den when she wants.”

“She says she’s going to make a better shelf for that.”

“She’s been saying that for three years…”

“But this is a glider. I just want to see if I like flying it to decide if I want to have one for the park. If I don’t like it, it will be a waste of time.”

“But if you do like it, you’ll need to start over from scratch, and we’re at scratch already. Why not make a good one and if you don’t like using it we can give it away to someone who does.”

“Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

That glider was passed on through three generations before it broke for good. It sits in Jeff’s window now, always bringing back wonderful memories.