won't they be impressed
I am a gen-i-us
see how I fashion planks and bricks
into a temporary fix

Today was a very wet day! Not just because of the rain outside, but because the metal clamps on the pipe connected to the sump pump came loose... resulting in much gushing and minor flooding of the basement. Luckily Mom noticed it before too much water spread, and then I made a temporary fix using planks and bricks to keep the pipe in place until more skilled hands arrived to reset the clamps properly. I was really proud of myself for that invention until Mom's friend rectified the problem in all of five minutes -- I'd previously tried to tighten the clamps but been unsuccessful for whatever reason (I failed similarly when the toilets upstairs were leaking; again Mom's friend came to the rescue).

So it seems that I am terrible at simply tightening screws and bolts, but have little difficulty grabbing and combining random items from my surroundings to fashion temporary fixes. I guess if anything ever goes wrong and you don't have any tools -- but do have a kettle and string and knickknacks of that nature -- I'm your man!

Luckily, today's damage was confined to several damp box bottoms and two books with wet pages towards their conclusions.