I owe my problem solving skills entirely to my mother, my scrappy, yes-you-can approach to housekeeping and fixery, yes all mom. I so appreciate her now for ignoring my whines or pout outbreaks and suggesting I find an alternative to the ‘perfect’ vision I’d originally had in mind for how something was to go, look or work out.

When my mom called me to tell me how she retreived her endorsed expense check from a rain gutter a couple weeks ago, I realized one of the main reasons I wrote my book was to promote a world with a little more ingenuity at its core. Getting a new check from the super-slow department at work that handles that wasn’t really an option (since she had to pay her AMEX) and luckily it hadn’t rained recently. She popped in piece of gum, chewed vigorously and grabbed the broom. She whisked it right on out of the storm drain and into her bank deposit pile in her hand where it’d been one gust of wind prior.

Just this weekend a good friend relayed her answer to a warranty-less washing machine that wouldn’t drain during the cycle: she did some online sleuthing, pulled out a screwdriver to reveal the inner workings. She used a ‘pokey stick’ (aka metal skewer bent like a hook at one end) to unclog the blockage (dang swimsuit cuppy pad!).

Folks who charge ahead over the hurdles or obstacles before them are my kind of people.