A buddy from high school just fixed the plumbing in his house.

“I watched a bunch of YouTube videos. Then I did it,” he said.

My brother-in-law makes his living as a handyman: “If I run into a problem I haven’t seen before, I tell them I have to go to my truck for my tools. That’s where I look up YouTube videos on how to fix it. Then I take care of the issue and the client thinks I’m a genius.”

Stories like these gave me hope. I am the unhandiest handyman known to history. I’ve been stumped changing batteries in a flashlight.

BUT, I do know how to watch videos. I’ve been practicing practically my whole life, starting with Bugs Bunny, Baby Huey and Yogi Bear when I was 3.

In the old days, I learned bothy tools and trade when something broke. If the car broke down, I had to figure out how to fix it enough to hobble it home. (We didn’t have cellphones for either YouTube or roadside service — Dad — in those simpler times.)

So when a headlight went dark on my car a couple months ago, I decided to give the new-fangled method a whirl. I pulled out my cellphone.

Did you know that you can find classic episodes of “Yogi Bear” on YouTube? There’s no need to fear, I found “Underdog” too.

Anyway, back to YouTube for changing headlights on a 2010…

Hey! Did you see the contestant on “America’s Got Talent” who had been bullied all his life and wrote a song about that, which dramatically lets the bullies know they didn’t win? Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it? And that talking dog, good stuff!

So, the headlamp… I opened the link and pressed play: “First, get a hydraulic jack, lift the front of the car and remove the wheel…”

Say what??? Pull the wheel? You gotta reach through the fender? To change a light bulb? What happened to unplug bad bulb, pop it out, set new bulb, plug it in? That’s how I learned when the lights went out on my old cars.

Remember when cars made sense and even a novice like me could change his own oil? Now everything’s so cramped and technical and misplaced under the hood that I can’t contort my arm enough to reach those pieces and parts.

I frantically Googled auto mechanic stories. Which led me to that wacky episode of the Three Stooges running a car repair shop. Or was that the one with Gomer and Goober at the garage in Mayberry? Yogi Bear and Jellystone? No, that was a picnic basket. Lots of good stuff to distract a frustrated meatball mechanic tripped up by YouTube instructional videos.

Necessity used to teach me well when the world was young, jobs weren’t so complicated and our screens stayed home in the living room. Now we carry video screens in our pockets. I haven’t had time to fix anything since. I get so sidetracked by fun stuff that the work never does get done.

Here’s an idea: How about if one of those AGT contestants went on stage as a handyman?

“Simon, today I’m going to show you how to replace a window frame. Heidi, would you come up here and run the power driver? Howie, stand by with the caulking gun…”

I could use this. That window on the second floor looks like it’s almost ready to drop and I don’t know how to fix it.

Cole isn’t on YouTube. Find him trying to fix something at burtseyeview@tribtoday.com or the Burton W. Cole page on Facebook.