Tools

I have been working with tools as long as I can remember. I rebuilt my first Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine when I was a young teenager and I've worked on my own car most of my life. I even rebuilt my car engine in the parking lot of our condo while I was a college student. I've managed to accumulate a decent collection of tools but I've never had a decent tool box. 

I'm making an effort to dig out my garage and one of the things I realized was than my tools are scattered all over the place. It is frustrating when you know you have a certain tool that you need and you can't find it. I've even had to go out and buy a second tool when I know I have one already but can't find it. I was complaining to Lisa one time and she simply said, "why don't you just go and buy yourself a tool box?" Good question, why didn't I buy one twenty years ago? Well I now have a nice new tool box and I am gradually collecting my tools from all over the house and I'm having a lot of fun. 

The best part is my dads tools. Shortly before my dad died he gathered all of us kids together and he collected all of his stuff in his basement and told us to go and divide it up among ourselves. One of the things I was able to leave with was all of my dads tools. I hardly needed any new tools but my dad was a carpenter and i have never not known him to be tinkering. He always had a shop and he always worked in his shop and way too many times he made me go work with him. Most of the things I'm able to fix around the house is because I watched my dad fix them around his house. 

The other cool thing about my dads tools is that some of them are pretty much antiques now. I have a large and a small "Brace and Bit" with several bits that go along with them. Those can't be too common now days. And then there is the manual drill. You just put a drill in the chuck and push it down and the drill bit spins. You press it down a few times and you've drilled a hole. I love the planer, you still see those around but this is an old sucker.

Don't you love the saw with the broken handle tied together with twine string. I don't think I'll ever change that saw. I also love how he made his own handles for the files. He just took a piece of wood, Cut it down to size, drilled a hole and stuck the handle of the file into the hole. 

No, those Ryobi cordless tools in the back ground aren't from my dad. Those are from Ben and they are the reason I will probably never use any of my dads tools. But that is OK. I just love having my dads tools in my new tool box and I feel closer to him every time I open one of the drawers. 

--------------------trivia--------------------
Henrietta Leavitt (1868-1921) discovered how to measure the distance to stars. Her discovery is considered foundational for modern astronomy and is actually called the "Leavitt Effect". She was even nominated for a Nobel prize but she died first. I checked her out on Ancestry.com and she is definitely a relative.
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