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I have a few chores around the house that I've been avoiding. Things that require me to stand on a ladder or dig up substitutes for tools I don't own. I may go into a nursing home before the two new smoke alarms get installed.

It got me to thinking (especially since my birthday is coming up) that a really nice present for a single woman would be an afternoon or morning of manly services. No, not that kind. Don't send me a gigolo when it's a handyman I'm hankering for. Here's how it would work.

Do you have a husband or father or son who can perform basic manly tasks around your house? I'm not talking about a certified plumber or anything. But maybe a guy who can carry lawn chairs up from the basement to get ready for the coming season, or clean leaves out of the gutters? Install those damned smoke alarms? (It's not that I'm some frilly, helpless girlie-girl, but I am only 5'2 and am chubby and old; ladders scare me a little bit.)

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'd appreciate some help once in a while. Someone I'm not paying $20+ an hour to do a lot of things I could probably do myself if were younger and taller. I'll bet you know someone like me who would appreciate the help as much as I would. Or maybe your friend is a single mom with little kids running her ragged who would give her left nut (if nuts she had) to have a few hours of complimentary babysitting service.

Oh - and here's another one for the single mom. If she doesn't have family around who thinks of doing this, offer to take her kids to the store to buy her a birthday or Christmas gift. She'll even gladly give you the money. It's just sad all around when mommy doesn't have anything to open Christmas morning and the kids feel bad that they couldn't get her a present. I've been there. This is a big deal and the friend and her kids will be so grateful to you for the help.

But back to me, me, me . . .

I don't expect your husband/father/son to come over for the afternoon to help me because he's just so kind and thoughtful. No. This is where you come in.

Instead of buying me a birthday dinner or a scarf or some other very nice gift, pay off your husband so he'll feel like he's getting something out of the deal. Make him chocolate chip cookies or offer one sex-on-demand certificate in exchange for his services. (Stick to the cookies for your father or son, of course.) I mean, putting out is the least you could do for a good friend, right?

In a world where most of us don't need more "stuff," I think it makes sense to consider how we can show our love to family and friends in more creative ways.

So there you go. My birthday is April 14 if any of my BFFs want to consider going this route. It's a big birthday this year, so you're probably already wondering what to get me. Here's the answer. And if you don't know me but just read my blog (thank you for THAT, by the way!), then I hope you will consider this for one of your dear friends who lives alone. Tell her Kate sent you.

UPDATE!

Wouldn't you know it, but I no sooner wrote this when I urgently needed manly help! My dear friend Carol and her beau, Bob, came to my rescue Sunday morning when a skunk was hiding under the new addition to my house. I knew this because my miniature hound dog, Mick, was sniffing and digging maniacally at a hole leading under the house (the addition, my bedroom, is built on top of what was a deck and is now filled with insulation). When I reached down to drag him away, I could smell skunk residue. Not a full-fledged, gruesome spray, thank goodness.

Carol and Bob drove over in a flash and helped move a large railroad trestle-type length of wood over to block Mick from the hole. I wish I could say that was the end of the story, but I'm afraid there may be more to share before this is done. Tomorrow the wildlife exterminators are coming over to build a wire mesh barrier to prevent Pepe le Pew and his smelly little paramour from making sweet love and birthing babies under my bedroom.

So thank you, Carol and Bob, and an early happy birthday to me! I hope Carol showed her gratitude to Bob in some appropriate manner.

- Kate Mahar

After years of writing everything from trade journal articles on fork lifts to executive speech copy, Kate Mahar is semi-retired from her freelance writing and event planning business. She's finally spinning stories for the sheer joy of it, writing her first novel and creating humorous posts for her blog, www.katemahar.com. Kate and her two dogs, Mick Jagger and Little Richard, are living happily ever after in beautiful Willoughby, Ohio.