Grab Bars–the perfect birthday or silver wedding gift

It is impossible to buy my husband a present. Anything he wants, he buys for himself. He buys big gizmos, like the old Buick parts-guzzler that lounges in the garage. He buys medium sized gizmos, like the 3-D printer that hums in the office. And he buys little gizmos, like parts for other gizmos. Yes, I complained about my gift-buying dilemma in an earlier blog post. So… you’ll be surprised to hear that I found the perfect gift for Husband’s birthday this month.

First, a little background: Husband slipped on the icy front steps last month, breaking three ribs and ending up in the hospital for two days. While he was dapperly dressed in a blue hospital gown, lithe blondes posing as occupational and physical therapists helped him figure out how to gingerly walk and potty and shower. And suddenly, I knew the perfect birthday present.

Yes! Grab bars for the tub! What a romantic idea! Why hadn’t I thought of that before?

So I bought grab bars at Home Depot. One was even disguised as a corner shelf. (Pictured is the Delta “Corner Shelf with Assist Bar” box.) Marty the Handyman installed them the next day. And voila—a gift that will last for years and make the young folks who consider buying the house some day roll their eyes.

Happy Birthday, dear Hubby. Actually, consider this your silver wedding anniversary gift, too.

P.S. Three weeks post-fall, the ribs are healing well. The pain is tolerable unless there’s a cough or sneeze. No doubt the happy brain chemicals given off from meditating about such a nice birthday gift are making pain meds unnecessary most of the time. (They say it takes six to 12 weeks to heal….)

P.P.S. No husbands were harmed in the creation of this blog post. Hubby approved it.