on seizing the day

and installing bowl toppers with ease

I thought that I had everything that I needed for the job.

Right up until I went to swap out my thirty five year old oak toilet seat, I believed that I was ready.

I was ready, until I met ‘the screw’.

The screw was seized. I should have anticipated this.

For the last 13 years and that toilet seat has been put to occasional use in our cabin. The summers here are damp. The winters are the same. Over time, the brass crew used to connect the seat to the bowl and the brass fitting that it went through had become one.

Rusted together solidly, I stripped the screw head. I began to panic. The family were on their way and without a functional toilet, they wouldn’t have been happy. I had to act fast.

First plan? Find a hacksaw and cut through the soft brass bit of stubborness. The issue? No hacksaw.

The next plan seemed pretty straightforward - smash the already broken toilet bowl. With the seat and screw freed, figuring out what to do next would be easy.

That’s when I realized that the brass screw was held by a plastic nut on the other side of the toilet. Ah-ha! I thought, cut the nut off? Naw… Smash it!

Both of my plans were fairly idiotic. Though the screw head was seized into the toilet seat fitting, the plastic nut moved fine. It was pretty loose. With a few quick twists. It was free. I didn't even need to use a wrench.

When I transfered my oak toilet seat to it’s new bowl, the seized screw made it so much easier for me to install the seat. I didn’t need a screwdriver to hold the screw while I tightened the nut.

This thing that I thought was going to cause a growing cascade of problems, actually made everything that I was trying to do a whole lot easier.

When you create resistance, or when you’re seized up how does that make somebody else's life easier?

Love the people who love you and if you can’t seize the day, seize up your screws.