Introduction to MANliness...

I think there should be a course in high school to teach suburban boys (like myself) how to do typically MANLY things. Potential lesson topics could include:

• Changing the oil of an F250
• Barbecuing the perfect steaks
• Changing a flat tire of a car
• Changing a flat tire of a car while under fire
• Growing facial hair
• Hunting
• Field stripping a gun

An advanced level course could include something like, how to fix a walking laundry machine. 

This could have come in particularly useful tonight. While almost busting a hernia laughing at reviews of the 2010 classic film, Titantic 2,  A yelled upstairs to advise me of the fact that "laundry machine is dancing!"

That's not how I remembered leaving it

My washer has this chronic issue of vibrating so much that it walks some distance. Using my graduate degree in the liberal arts, I previously diagnosed the problem to be an unlevelled machine. Apparently front loading machines have a tendency to shake violently if they are even 1 mm unlevelled. Naturally, I did not find the youtube video telling me this small fact until I had taken apart half the non-servicible parts of the machine. 

On this occasion, I figured that the levelling nut on one of the legs had loosened, leaving the machine unlevel again. So with A's assistance, I tightened up all the nuts and pushed the behemoth back into place. While quietly relieved that it was a simple fix, I finished up by reminding A that it was "no biggie," thereby reinforcing my man cred in front of an attractive woman. That's right babe, I can fix ANYTHING. 

But the truth is that I can't. And that's why I think somebody should teach the next generation of suburban boys some real skills in case they encounter something beyond a mis-levelled washing machine.