Most of us must have known people who, in their private lives, show a lack of the skill or talent their livelihoods depend on. That’s the old adage that “The shoemaker’s children have no shoes.”
There’s no question in my mind that there have been lawyers who seem at a loss to deal with someone or some company that has cheated them; physicians whose families constantly suffer from some illness; mechanics whose own cars sound like concrete mixer trucks and teachers whose kids have all the enthusiasm for education of Bart Simpson.
Please post here real instances you’ve known of, of such occupational irony.
Well, I guess you can compare it to my family.
My dad went through 11 years of college getting a bachelor, 2 masters and a MBA. Of his 4 children, none of us have made it past year 2 as of yet. 3 of us have quit college. He is so disapointed.
I am the long-haired son of a barber…
Used to work in a bank–be surprised how many bank employees bounce checks…or maybe you wouldn’t…who knows.
Also, I work Tech Support and my home PC never gets even routine maintenance…sigh…
Mr. Legend is a computer engineer (hardware and software), yet he’s taken months to even begin setting up our network at home. It’s not a matter of his lacking the skill, it’s just that he lacks the time (or the interest, after doing it all day).
My father originally trained as an architect and now is an aerospace engineer. I used to work as a technical illustrator and senior design drafter. You’d think that between the two of us we’d have talent enough to read some diagrams, right?
Together it took us two hours to assemble a (seemingly) simple workout bench and only recently did we realize that we’d assemble a major part of it backwards.
I’m a PC Technician, but I can’t get the new CD-RW I got for Christmas to work. (For those of you who might have an idea, I can’t get the BIOS to pick it up.)
My father is a wonderful humanitarian while working as a journalist (CBC Radio News national reporter in Montreal). He’s won human rights awards for his work with First Nations people and around the world. Which given the content of the thread ought to give you some idea of what he’s like at home.
I always thought that phrase meant that the person (the shoemaker) was just so busy, he didn’t have time to make shoes for his own kids. Not neccessarily a lack of skill, but that he was so busy with paying customers, he couldn’t get around to making shoes for his kids (who obviously don’t pay for their shoes).
Just my 2 cents…
Where to start??
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I am a trained furniture and cabinetmaker yet I currently own no dining room chairs. The DR table is shoved in the corner.
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I am a kitchen designer yet my kitchen is a pathetic apt. jumble with 15" of counterspace.
3)no end tables either. ( and those are easy to make!)
Just before leaving my last house which I lived in for seven years, I put the baseboard on behind the table in the kitchen which I had removed the week before moving in!
ahh well…
Switch it to the secondary IDE channel. If that doesn’t work play with the jumpers.
I too am a computer engineer that has a pile of barely working components in a box that I call a home PC.
Guilty. I’m a deeply anal accountant at work, but my checkbook hasn’t been balanced in years. (don’t worry honey, I got it all worked out in my head…). And don’t even ask about my tax files at home, although we finally got a filing cabinet a month ago.
Back in my lab days, I always saw nurses smoking. Who would better see the consequenses of a lifetime of smoking than the people who are in daily contact with people that are in every stage of every smoking related disease?
I am a lawyer, and about 10 years ago I went into practice- a full-fledged partnership- with someone who I knew (or thought I did) and who had a reputation for being a good lawyer. I didn’t have the foresight to ask to see his books, tax returns, or anything else. After a couple of months, I discovered that he hadn’t been filing or paying the withholdings on employees for months before I even came into the picture, and we were not making nearly the money that he represented to me we would be making (he allegedly had a thriving practice). He was making large draws every month and leaving next to nothing for me. I stayed with him for 6 months and in that amount of time lost the money I had been saving to buy a house- $20,000. Just GONE.
My parents and friends were flabbergasted that I went into a business venture so blindly. I’m a good lawyer, and it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that making a bad (OK, horrible) business decision wasn’t a reflection of my abilities as a lawyer. I left that firm for a job as a public defender, and while some of my clients are in fact less than honest, at least they don’t steal from me!
P.S.- the other lawyer was suspended two years later for stealing money from his clients.
Not to [hijack], but I’ve got my hard drive as the Primary Master, the CD-RW as Secondary Master, and my original CD-ROM as Secondary Slave. In BIOS, Pro. Slave, Sec. Master and Sec. Slave are all set to Auto, but I still can’t get the BIOS to pick up the CD-RW. Ideas? Anyone?[/hijack]
Back to the OP, I only recently got the parallel port on this same machine working.
That’d make a great sig line, Meep.
My ex husband was a mechanic (he used to call it being an automotive technician). In four years, he changed my oil exactly once, and that after alot of nagging and promising extra blow jobs. My regular mechanic has outlasted the ex, and I’ve never had to offer him a blow job. 
I’m a painting contractor, and despite owning my house for almost six years, I’ve yet to finish painting the outside, which sorely needs it. I do feel sort of bad about that.
Back when I was a chef, I had some roommates. They were so excited: “A chef for a roommate… we’re going to eat like kings!”
Heh. Sorry folks. No dice. Oh, I’d whip up some feast every couple of months or so, but most of the time we ate out of cans. BECAUSE (and I think this is the explanation for all of these situations): What do you think was the last thing I felt like doing when I got home from work?
My best friend used to be a mechanic, and still works at a car dealership, and her SO is a mechanic.
Her vehicle ALWAYS needs some long overdue work or maintenance, and he bought a brand new truck so he wouldn’t have to do anything to it.
Yes, it’s true. When you spend all day doing something at work, it’s the last thing you want to do when you get home. I clued in right away, and never ask either of them to look at my car, unless it’s at their place of work and I’m paying for it.
I knew a psychiatrist whose wife of many years was permanently shrewish, nagging, bitter, combative, abusive, and basically impossible to be around for even short periods of time (and their daughter wasn’t much better).
But for all I know that might have been a case of a doctor who got involved with a patient. In other words, I don’t know if the wife’s mental health problems preceded the marriage or resulted from it.