So, we did it. We pulled up the floating dock and the ramp, but not without a lot of four letter words {and maybe some new ones} on the part of the HH.
In fact the ENTIRE time we were doing this {and it took something like 2 1/2 hours!!} he kept saying THERE ARE JUST SOME THINGS YOU PAY PEOPLE TO DO!!! This isn’t worth it. Not to save $200! {Which is what Dock Guy would have charged us.}
The HH and I, we have very different ways about going about things.
I’m much more pragmatic and calm about stuff, it’s either going to work or it’s not. I don’t really bother about the stuff in between. But the HH does. He’s much more excitable than I am and he worries about every POSSIBLE thing that would go wrong both before and during whatever thing it is we’re attempting to do.
I guess you could say he does the worrying for me. While I see no need to worry because:
- We have a plan
- It’s going to work
- If something goes wrong, we’ll deal with it
I’m not a worrier, he is. It’s amazing we’ve made it this far.
I mean unhooking a floating dock… and pulling up a ramp. What could possibly go wrong?
The HH:
- One of us falls to our death.
- We break something.
- We lose a tool to the mud and muck and it’s never to be seen again.
- We mess up and the dock goes floating out into the ocean.
Mavis:
Or we could succeed.
Oh my gosh… we did it! We managed to pull the floating dock and ramp up ourselves with some rope, straps and a portable winch. Shocking… right? 😉
All that worrying on the part of the HH, it was totally unnecessary, right?
And hey, check it out. While we were pulling up the dock, we found a {practically brand new} lobster crate down on the beach below. How cool is that? It was like a little high five from the universe saying way to go… I knew you could do it.
I suppose now we need to get a lobster license so we’ll have something to put in it.
Ahhh husbands. They’re a funny lot. Wouldn’t you agree?
So curious minds want to know… Who is the worrier in your family?
Well, I’m off to bake a cake {and no, I’m not worried about burning it}. 😉
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Mel says
I think my husband and I both worry a bit but not excessively, especially given the year we’ve had. Logic helps me though, so the fact that the ocean is not, you know, filled with runaway floating docks makes me think that most people probably manage that okay. Even with the odds in your favor, that was still quite a project though! Good work!
We are gearing up for some big house projects in the spring, and I’m not worried exactly, but everything is more expensive right now, and our house tends to throw curve balls, so it’s also probably not totally stress-free.
Pauline in Upstate NY says
You know, $200 sounds pretty cheap to me. Definitely worth it to save your marriage from 2-3 hours of serious angst and avoid the risk of serious injury to middle-aged backs. Having the right tools, having many years of experience = done in 20 minutes. Hefty price in terms of dollars per minute, but worth every penny in my book. My vote would be to book the dock guy for Fall 2022 – NOW.
Liz says
I totally agree! Scary story here…..my very fit, very intelligent, middle aged brother who had done this a million times….scrambled up onto the roof to clean the leaves off his single-storey cottage a few summers ago. Long story short, he lost his footing, tumbled off the roof head first, and broke his neck. As a quadriplegic. he is now living in a nursing home as he requires round-the-clock medical care. Sadly, because of circumstances, he will never be able to visit his cottage again.
Had he cleaned the cottage roof, in the past, too many years to count, successfully? Yes! Did he have the means to hire someone to do this? Yes, most definitely!
It only takes a nano-second for an accident to happen! And, of course, people think it won’t happen to them…until it does.
Hiring someone usually ensures that that person or company has the experience and the tricks of the trade to do the job safely and efficiently. Hiring someone else also means that you are helping that person make a living….important to the local economy at this time!
Dianne says
This is very a very sad and unfortunate story. I agree, leave those dangerous jobs to the professionals. The money you save is not worth the problems you could run into.
Cindy R says
I totally agree. Somethings are better left to an expert. At this stage of the game I value myself and my husband’s physical well-being and would rather not risk pulling muscles or any incurring other injuries.
Jeanine says
So the question is…..would you do it again and does your HH feel confident he can put it back into the water in the spring?
Meg C says
My husband is the worrier about the tangible things (when we started dating my friends called him the Mayor of Safety Town LOL because I’m pretty much the opposite!) but I am the worrier about the intangibles. We balance each other out, mostly.
Also, my husband is like you & hates spending money on something we can “do ourselves” which, unfortunately, means a lot of things don’t get done because there is no time with work, kids activities, & our social calendar.
Deborah R says
My husband is our worried too. I think I have become so use to him worrying about everything that I don’t really worry. I know he has thought (and over thought) any possible problem for whatever we’re doing so I just go along. Thing is he is the one that doesn’t want to pay someone else to do anything he can do himself, even if it’s something he has never done and has no idea how to do (thank God for utube videos).
Elle says
I’m the worrier but it is far less at this stage of life as we can afford to have things done for us and repairs made for us. On this dock? I’m with hubster, pay to have it done.
We pay for snow removal. 3y ago we had 50 inches in 30 hours. A loader with a 5 yard bucket can empty the driveway in 3 passes and he came 4 times during this storm. It’s not unusual for a storm to drop 10 inches overnight. We are grateful. (Central Idaho above 5000f).
It will be interesting to hear what ya’ll do next fall. Will he do it again because now you’ve done it, or will he hire it out?
Happy Tuesday
Robin in WI says
I’m the worrier. 🙂 We do something similar every year with bringing in rafts and docks on inland lakes. Some people have floating docks but most of them (so far) are metal posts standing in the sandy bottom with wooden dock sections attached. Pretty easy installation and removal.
Now that you mention lobster again, I have a question: Are all lobsters humanely killed before being tossed in boiling water? I read that boiling alive has been banned in the U.S. since 1999, and I hope everyone has indeed stopped that painful, cruel, and barbaric practice. (I don’t go to seafood places.)
Lisa says
My husband is the same. Me, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. My husband takes a lengthy detour and makes everything much more complicated.
MEM says
I agree with HH on this one. He was clearly a manager in his previous career. In my marriage I am both the worrier and the action-oriented person. My DH is the process-oriented person – so some things take FOR-ever to get started. I am the worker bee (DH is the SAHD) and in my job I am a manager so we do hire out certain projects to those with the expertise.
Jeannine says
West coast city girl here….why do you have to pull up the dock? Why can’t you just leave it in the water?
Robin in WI says
Hello — where I live, docks are removed in the winter so they don’t get damaged by ice. 🙂 Rafts and boats are stored on land as well. If you drive by a marina you see yachts, sailboats, and charter boats hibernating in a parking lot, covered with tarps.
Erin Kerbs says
I am the worrier and planner. My husband doesn’t plan or worry about anything. Neither does his family. They don’t even plan for things like retirement. It is crazy to me. (Thankfully my husband lets me plan his (our) retirement.)
Catherine says
We have a lakefront cabin in my family, our dock is aluminum and in sections that hook together with cedar wood platforms that you drop into place. In the spring you hook and lower the aluminum docking pieces into place with a rod and in the fall you use the rod to lift and pull them out. One person can do it but it’s a lot easier with three or four. My parents are getting into their late fifties and have already said its time for the kids to put it in and out. It’s not heavy but awkward. Some things are worth paying for to make life easier, whether that’s having an easier system to use of having someone put yours out for you.
Jennifer says
My dh is the worrier. I have teased him for all 29 years that somewhere on Earth, there is a man walking around with not a care in the world. Why? Because dh worries enough for both of them!!
Heather says
We are both worriers / planners, but it depends upon the topic. For example, Husband hates flying since he has bad luck with flights being cancelled, etc. I hate leaving late for the airport, etc since I have been stuck due to accidents, etc and then I hate feeling stupid arriving late when if we just left earlier we wouldn’t have had a problem.
Lindsey says
I am happy to economize in other places in order to pay someone else to do heavy lifting jobs. My husband would do them but I want him to save his back and spare him the mental and physical aggravation, so I insist we hire out some things.
Dianne says
I’m the worrier. MY DH worries about projects that he would like to attempt and what he will be getting into in the process. If the process is more than he believes he can handle, like pulling a dock out of a lake, he will hire out. Better safe and here, than being sorry and hurt. Too many people think they know what they are doing to save a buck. The outcome is usually a poor job. Leave the hard stuff for the professionals. My HB at 68 was going to attempt to put up a 5′ by 60′ retainer wall this past summer. Oh, he could do it, but it would have killed him! Those interlocking blocks are heavy! We chose to have it done by a professional.
Gwyn says
I am the worrier but I also hate to spend money when we don’t have to. On the other hand when my husband became self employed we started thinking in terms of how much our time is worth. Some things are worth paying for when it saves you time and you can earn money for your own business.
debbie in alaska says
my husband is the anxious worrier who imagines all that can go wrong. I am the Mavis of the duo in this scenario.
Pam says
My husband is definitely the worrier. I like a challenge and love to change things up and try new things.
Cecile says
DH worries about finances I worry about everything else so I think we are on equal footings! lol Good job on getting the dock pulled in without losing an arm or a leg or heaven forbid a tool in the muck! lol
Nancy D says
I am like your hubby. My hubby is like you. Stuff like that is just a set up to prove how different we process. My hubby is so patient it drives me crazy at times. He’s DEFINITELY my better half!
Vicki in Birmingham says
Once upon a time, I would have done that dock removal too; I plan, I do, I go to plan B if A doesn’t work, but now that I am older…$200 really is not that much money! I think it would have delighted me to say, Come up to the house when you finish and I will give you your money and a cup of hot chocolate.
That is one thing I am certain of…there will ALWAYS be change…you can depend on that!
Glad you got it taken care of and there is no concerns about it for another year!
Tammy says
I’m definitely the worrier. My specialty is coming up with things that most normal people wouldn’t even think up.
Glad you got it in! Maybe next year it’s worth $200?
Tricia says
We both worry about things that the other person thinks are silly to worry about. Funny how that happens. He definitely takes chances on things I think are scary (climbing tall ladders, pulling in docks, jacking up foundations), so now he tends to not tell me and does these types of things when I’m not around. There is a reason women live longer than men.
Mrs. M. says
I laughed out loud at this post, Mavis, because the HH and I are in the process of remodeling a real fixer upper of a home, and I just told him the wallpaper arrived today (it looks like beadboard!), and this was our conversation:
Him: You better not put it in until the floors are done.
Me: Why?
Him: When they install the carpet, they’ll scrape it and tear up the wallpaper.
Me: There are baseboards. Won’t those be what gets scraped?
Him: I’ve seen them lay carpet. When the unroll it, they can scrape the walls. It can be rough.
Me:
(Something I’d never thought of or worried about. But, I appreciate him looking out for me. He doesn’t want me to do the work twice. )
I worry about other things, like… do places we stay have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors? Do I have enough honey and heavy cream for my tea in the morning?
So, we’re both worrriers in our own ways. It’s been working for 27 year.
Ramona says
I have always been a worrier from the time I was very young. I would be in the backseat of the car leaning over my Dad’s shoulder watching the cars gauges to see if there was enough gas, if my Dad was driving the speed limit. I still worry about things and will even worry for other people. I have no idea why I worried so much as a child, I was often called a worry wart. I also have a case of the what if’s.
Cheryl says
I am the worrier and I like to plot it all out first. I actually write down the order to do things and weigh out the pros and cons.
As we age (67 and 74), with bad backs and joints replaced, we try to do everything we have always done, but it takes longer with more breaks. Case in point, we had a couple trees taken down out back by an experienced tree guy, but in order to save $300.00, we did the finish work after he ground out the stumps. Finishing meant raking all the shredded wood, mulch, rocks, etc. up, than, buying topsoil, tamping it down, buying and spreading the seed and finally the peat moss. It looks great and we felt an awesome sense of satisfaction when done, but there was some cursing and moaning during the process.
In order to stay healthy, you gotta keep moving. But as we age, for us, it makes more sense sometimes to pay for someone else to do it. He wants to put up a bead board ceiling in the family room (14′ w 28′ long). That means standing on a ladder, arms up in the air, holding the wood and nailing…I say “hell no”! Find a guy…lol.
Pat says
Oh my gosh! You could have been describing my husband and me!
Jan says
I agree with your husband on there are just something you pay people to do —- so i don’t have to hear my husband’s the sky is falling worries about how it can go wrong 🙂
Stacey says
I was looking forward to seeing how it went, and I’m glad you have it done! It looks harder than I envisioned. I have a feeling my husband and I would pay someone to do it because neither of us is handy. Way to go!!!
Angela D. says
While I do occasionally worry that my husband will injure himself doing a job around the house, it’s really more his swearing that puts me off. We used to enjoy working together on projects, but his increasing frustration and swearing with every.single.job. has made it not fun for me anymore. His attitude just sucks the life out of me. I dread helping him with anything because his mood is so emotionally exhausting for me to experience.
On the bright side, with my reluctance to ask him for help when I need it, (tech guy, strong guy, etc.) I am finding that I can do things that I never thought I could, or never wanted to do, in the past.
We scold children for having “a bad attitude.” Hmmm…….
Lisa Millar says
This made me laugh… ok first up… awesome job! Those kinds of jobs are so daunting, but the subsequent pride for completing them (and not dying) is high
Who is the worrier and pessimist in our little family??
Husband by a country mile!!
His glass is 3/4 empty.
Mine is 100% full and thats probably my glass over there too! 🙂
Enjoy the cake!
JJ says
Hi Marvis,
I am reading your blog since a while, an I love it. But I rarely laughed so hard while reading it today. You and your husband seem to be so much alike than mine and I.
He is the eternal worrier and on the end things work just fine. Sometimes I wonder as well how we made it so far.
I love all you’re doing and your local buys.
When we were in Canada two years ago before covid, we really enjoyed the little local shops, too.
Now we are back in France. It’s not totally the same, but I like the local shopping, too.
I have so much fun reading your stories.
Thank you.
JJ
Dianna says
This made me chuckle because it sounds like my husband & me when trying to back the camper into a tight spot. My hubby would have been irritated at me taking pictures of him trying to get it done, though! He does not like to pay for something he thinks he can do himself…but he also has terrible luck with projects. If something can go wrong, it usually does, so I always try to convince him to hire a professional.