[Eric 951]

Interesting thread. I notice alot of younger folks projecting a sense of (undeserved) entitlement. I have firiends who have recently graduated college, and since their graduation have not really done anything. Their line of thinking is "I graduated college, so I deserve "x" amount of money as a starting salary" Which is true to a point, but when they "researched" the salaries of the positions which they were entering, there were posted ranges. Most thought that the "starting" salary was beneath them, instead angling for the middle of the spectrum. They didn't want to start at the bottom and work their way to a point, they wanted to start at the middle, and then can't understand how they didn't land the job with their salary(and benefit/vacation) demands.

As for "doing", one of the bigger reasons I like doing things myself is that I know it will be right and I don't have to second guess or nitpick the work of others. If I pay for a service, I can be overly critical, because I will notice things differ from how I would do it. Probably a bit OCD, as my wife tells me, but I was always taught "do it right the first time".

We just returned from the Fl Keys for an anniversary vacation. The toilet in the lower bathroom of the house in which we were staying had the tank overfill the first night. I caught it pretty qucikly and did a quick clean-up. The house is in an awesome location and is a vacation home which belongs to friends that always give us a killer deal. I could have easily just called them and they would have had a plumber come out asap to fix it. Instead, I took the tank plumbing apart, properly adjusted the float valve(it was set too high and hit the top of the tank which prevented it from shutting off the water flow, which in turn would overflow the tank), checked the seals, re-routed the flush arm so it cleared the valve/fill tube, etc. and had it back together in an hour. I just wouldn't have felt right if the owners had to call a plumber and was glad that I could do something to help them out since they always hook us up.

Sorry for the long post, but I really like "getting my hands dirty" and actually "doing".