My Dad could sell the proverbial snow to an Eskimo and he knew how to do a lot of stuff around the house but it wasn't exactly precision work - it was close is good enough work.

My parents gave me the old RCA set for my room when we got a new tv in the main room. With only 3 channels I would watch a few shows but the overhead light in the ceiling put a lot of glare on the old black and white set. So I had seen dimmer switches at my friends house and I went to a hardware store and got one. I read the directions and replaced the regular on/off switch. I guess the next day, my mom noticed the switch and about freaked out about it. She made dad pull it out and make sure it was right. He took the cover off, pulled the dimmer, looked at it and put it back together. Said it was good. I think I was 13-14, I had already done an engine swap in an old '62 Ford that he gave me to keep me away from mom's Chevy - I did that at 12 years of age.

About a 1/2 dozen years later, my dad wanted to upgrade the single light bulbs in the garage with fluorescent light fixtures. I had a friend in the electrical supply business and got everything we needed. I hung the fixtures, 3 in the garage and one outside in a storage area and ran all the wiring back to a switch box next to the door. Dad ran a new wire from the fuse box over to the light switch. I had to get home - already had my first son - and he said he would finish it up. He called me later and told me I did something wrong. Every time he tried to turn the lights on, the fuse would blow. I went by after work the next day and we looked at it. I knew I had the fixtures wired correctly. In the switch box he had connected the ground and hot side to the switch, when you flipped the switch it crossed and popped the fuse. He looked at it and said, oh well, I don't know anything about electricity anyway!