uncommonly feeble and random thoughts

 May 22, 2021 A tale of three continents... My hose reel died. Well, it's been leaking for two years, but it's been a discreet leak. Nobody could really see it, and if I positioned the reel properly, the evidence would get lost in the weeds, so to speak. But then water began arcing from the intake fitting, launching small but admirably artistic jets of evidence. Time to visit the Land of Retail. Nothing caught my eye in brick-and-mortar shops, so I went virtual. I finally landed on a $100 model, which seemed to have all the features I desired. Mostly, no leaks. So I ordered it, and eagerly pined for one of the myriad daily delivery trucks to stop at our place... At last, what I thought would be my dream arrived, and immediately I was transported to Assembly Island, which, it turns out, is just one Metro stop short of Hades. Oh, the instructions were fine, on cursory examination, but then I noticed there were two parts labeled "A", and two labeled "B...

June 19, 2021   Bigger Hammer:   You encounter a hard-to-remove screw, and you discover the stuck screw you're working on has a slot/phillips head but is also a hex nut head, so you think "socket set!" because you envision the increased torque you can achieve using a ratchet versus a screwdriver handle (and you silently deny, again, that you are losing grip and twist strength as you age)... and you find that little-used socket set with the small sockets in the garage tool collection, and are reminded that the metrics and nots are jumbled up (and now you realize you've forgotten the promise you made to yourself the last time you accessed this set, to organize it properly, so you make the promise again), and, after guessing the size you need and returning to the porch worksite to find that no, that's the wrong size, twice, and then decide you can bring the other screw, the one that wasn't stuck, out to the socket collection in the garage to find a p...