Friday, July 16, 2010
Just Call Me MacGyver
I saved hundreds of dollars on my daughter's new knee braces. I bypassed the doctor and the ridiculous fees he charges for doing nothing other than handing her off to whomever is his current best golf buddy so he can also bill me exorbitantly for the privilege of having him fit my daughter and sell me overpriced braces only to have them end up being too clunky and distressing my baby. I'm onto the scam and the party's over. Not limited by my insurance company and a vendor this time, I found just the right set online and I customized them myself last night. They were absolutely perfect but for the velcro on the fitting straps being a little bit too short to fasten a snug enough fit to properly support patellar alignment. So I took the velcro straps off of an old pair of shoes and sewed them in. It was hard and it took hours to force a needle through such heavy materials so many times and I had to use dental floss instead of thread to make it hold fast. Then I used my black Sharpie marker to cover up the white stitching. My daughter is thrilled and she says they are the best and most comfortable braces she has ever had. She called them her 'dream braces' and she is now looking forward to walking in the mall today and going to catch the Ray's game on Sunday instead of dreading trying to get around in awful braces. You should see how happy she is! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some leftover floss and a wad of chewing gum so I'm off to build a shopping mall.
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I will send you a bobby pin and a #2 pencil - and perhaps you can whip up something for the nun?
ReplyDeleteThat is hilarious, Lynn!! :) You rock!! Good for you! (BTW - what would you recommend for fixing a leaky bathtub faucet? I can get bubble gum.....)
ReplyDeleteGreat job.
ReplyDeleteGrace, I can't even explain how your comment made me laugh. I needed that.
ReplyDeleteLC, the leaky bathtub faucet can be for one of several reasons and it can be time consuming and a bit frustrating to pin down. The easiest thing to do (and it usually ends up being cheaper, too) is to go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy one of those kits that has a new faucet system because it comes with instructions and illustrations specific to that new system (check for good instructions before you buy it). Make sure you buy some plumber's tape and putty, too. And the simpler the new system, the faster and easier it will be to install it. Believe it or not, you don't have to be a plumber to do it. I've done it and I had ZERO experience. I had tools and instructions and a book about DIY plumbing from the library. It was cheaper than calling a plumber and I learned a lot of things by doing it and this gave me fewer future plumbing bills. I have also repaired my own garbage disposal, washer, dryer, fridge and even my car a few times. And I didn't even need floss or chewing gum! Okay, I admit the dryer repair was not free of incident (what is?) and it landed me at the doc for a tetnus shot, but I reckon I needed that anyway. Or so they say.
:-)
Thank you, Wanda.