Wednesday, February 8, 2017

FranktoidTM No. 17 - The Man Plate

Summer is coming and my man plate is getting full. What's a man plate you ask? Is it a distant cousin of the man bun? Brother to the man cave? Uncle of the man purse? Actually the man plate is all your current projects combined together whether they be mechanical, wood, landscaping, or household. Basically all traditional guy stuff. Man plates have no room for video games or sports, unless the latter is hunting and then I want to hear a Tim Taylor grunt! Move over Brawny Paper Towels lumberjack, the man plate is piled high with a heapin' pile o' man stuff.

Currently my man plate has two project cars, a half finished garage reorganization, interior trim painting, front door replacement, and a side yard that needs landscaping, but I will probably farm that out because I loathe yard work. Pile on some regular vehicle maintenance and unexpected emergencies and my man plate is pretty darn full! With so much to do it's a wonder that anything gets done at all, but I just plug away at it little by little. The key for me is not to get burnt out on any one thing so I will bounce back and forth between projects to keep things fresh.

Don't judge a man plate by it's "size" either. It is not about how many projects you do or do not have, but rather where they place on the man meter. Confused? Let me explain. If you have a few energy saving light bulb changes and some weeding in the garden on your man plate, you might be lucky and rank about a 2 or 3 on the man meter. On the other hand if you have an oil change on tap, firing up the chain saw to cut some fire wood, swapping out that leaking cartridge on your kitchen faucet, and changing out the wax ring on the toilet, you just scored an easy 8 or 9 on the man meter! Be a man and man up your man plate.

So now that we know all there is to know about the man plate, what's on yours?