Getting Hammered

It seems incongruous for one who spends so little time on home repair projects to want to hang out at the hardware store.

Sure, Mr. Ginley and I will troll for the stuff he needs. Last Sunday, we had to pick up some glass for windows he's repairing. We got what was required for the job, then browsed for awhile, him musing aloud, "I know we needed something else from here, I just can't think what it was."

This time, it turned out to be more light bulbs. So Lowe's became my lunchtime destination on Monday.

My first stop was the light bulb disposal unit. Now that we have CFL's with mercury in them, they have to be properly pitched. So...as directed, I wrapped each little body in a plastic bag and sent it down a chute to hang with all of the other burned out bulbs. It made me a little sad, wondering if there was an analogy there to my retirement.

But I digress.

I found shiny new bulbs to take the place of the old ones and was about to turn around and check out, when I decided to stroll around a little, just for yucks.

Growing up, hardware stores were neighborhood affairs. We had one in our neck of woods until a couple of years ago. Those stores were packed floor-to-ceiling with tools, parts and home repair products of every kind. The cool thing was, you could walk in, hand the guy some gewgaw, and he would have you wait for a minute, then return with a replacement gewgaw. The guy was magical, like a resident Harry Potter. You swore he went in the back room and conjured the thing up. How could he possibly have a replacement part for a screen door that was made in 1926?

Today, we have super stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. They're certainly large. And they have lots of stuff. Maybe too much stuff. In spite of the vast selection, it seems to be more difficult to find exactly what you're looking for. I haven't figured out why this is, it doesn't make sense. But, time after time, I go in there looking for a specific item, and they don't have it. Sometimes I'll luck out and Home Depot will have it. But that requires a second shlep.

And, while sometimes I do enjoy just walking around those places and marveling at all the stuff and imagine someone using it to create something wonderful, many times I just want that part for my aging screen door.

But, I suppose that's the business model, to get you to roam the miles of aisles, to buy lots of stuff you hadn't planned on getting, dreaming of projects that will ultimately be completed by some local guy you find on the internet.

Lowe's knows!