My dad is the ultimate man's man. A popular but mischievous athlete growing up (class president, etc.), he's by far the most successful person to emerge from his hometown (key to the city type of thing).

He's incredibly handy - there's truly nothing he can't fix. He's got a crazy sense of direction, and can memorize a map of even a very foreign city within a few hours of being there, and we've never gotten lost with him behind the wheel.

He's a perfect gentleman, completely protective, i.e. we don't walk through the parking lot, he always gets the car and comes to pick us up.

My mom's good friend recently wanted to install new light fixtures. Her husband was not able to, so my dad went over and did it for them (not a good use of his time but it was a favor to my mother).

I think it's not a coincidence that my mom's friend was suddenly afterwards intensely unhappy with her husband, they're constantly fighting now, and AFAIK have hired someone to take the light fixture down because they didn't want to look at it anymore.

My parents think this is all very mysterious and can't imagine why their friends are so contentious all of a sudden. They truly didn't mean to cause trouble and I actually find their befuddlement kind of cute - because to me it's very clear what happened!