Paying for services Jan 5, 2007
I recently heard someone say he doesn't mind paying for people to do things.  His example was with moving:  Instead of packing up all your junk, renting a U-Haul, and conning your friends into spending the whole day helping you, he said he was ok with paying some dudes to do it for him.  While I agree with him in that example, I don't agree with most other examples.  This is partially as a result of my cheapness, and partially as a result of my desire to do things myself and solve problems.  In most house-related examples, I could easily pay a guy a bunch of money to fix my problem.  But I ain't got no money, or rather, I try to avoid spending money on things when a cheaper, yet equally effective alternative will suffice.  I can figure things out.  And when figuring fails, brute force can be employed.  Like Scott Adams, I use a process called "jamming it in there". 

On the other hand, there are a few things I'm willing to pay for.  Car repair is one of them.  The only thing I know about cars is where gasoline goes.  Plus, I don't have many of the proper tools, and I don't have the desire to learn.  Electrical work is another one.  I'm scared of electricity like certain groups of people are scared photographs will steal their soul.  I can't see electricity.  I can't smell it.  But I'm told it's there.  And a simple wrong move or a misplaced metal object can instantly kill you.  That's not cool in my book. 

There are a few things I should be willing to pay for because of their inherent life-ending capabilities, but I instead take my chances and do it myself.  Anything involving "up on the roof" fits in this category.  Dutch colonial houses have steep side roofs, so the only flat parts are right on the top.  I have to fully extend my 24-foot ladder just to get up there, and Wendy has to hold the bottom the whole time.  Another thing is plumbing.  Although I've had great success with my little plumbing projects, soldering pipes dear drywall is in fact quite dangerous.  Our house smelled like roasted marshmallows last time.  But eh, I got the job done, and our house is still standing.  I don't know any better indicator of success. #psychology
Serve me Jan 5, 2007
I have a hard time asking people to do things for me, and it's solely because I don't want to do things for other people.  Hmm, that sounds worse than when it was stewing around in my head.  But here's the deal:  I'm a person with a purpose.  I'm pretty much always doing something or on my way to do something.  Even when I'm idle, I'm not really idle.  So when somebody interrupts my current action (which might look like no action at all) and says, "Hey, can you do this thing for me?", I'm usually annoyed.  For example, I was at a family's house last night where the mother asked the daughter to put away the food and then asked the grandmother to do the dishes.  These two services would allow Wendy and I to meet with the woman and her husband and talk about Bible study planning stuff.  But even though the service requests were legitimate and useful, I still wasn't comfortable with them.  The daughter didn't even eat with us; now she's being told to put away somebody else's food.  The grandmother doesn't even live there; now she's being asked to do dishes.  If I were in either serving person's position, I would've been angry and reluctant to help out.  This shows that I'm pretty selfish.  But these service requests simply open up the mother to be obligated to help out with something in the future.  And that's where my reluctance comes in.  I'd rather do something myself instead of asking someone to do it for me, simply because I don't like being asked to do things.  There ya have it. #psychology