nuts&bolts

Sunday.

I was having a lovely day; it was sunny, warm enough to start the snow melting. I was driving around in my old car, listening to Cat Stevens, and running errands. A perfectly perfect afternoon.

But what made it extra perfect (if such a thing is possible) was the kind of errands I was running.

I had to get a spring to repair my electric shaver (yes, it broke again), and a washer and nut for the faucet in the bathroom sink. So I went to Home Depot.

I don't often go to Home Depot anymore. When I lived in California, I went to Home Depot (or, preferably, Orchard Hardware) at least 2-3 times a week. Well, I had to! There were things that needed doing! There were tools and stuff that needed to be bought to do them!

But that was when I lived in a house, with a garage and a yard. Now I live in an apartment, and keep my tools in the pantry, next to the sugar. Well, I only have one closet, and that's full of my camping equipment. What would you do? It's a sad state of affairs.

So I hadn't been to Home Depot in a long time. And after meandering around for awhile, picking up some drywall anchors and a clamp and some fuses for my car, I fell to admiring the copper pipes in the plumbing section and the little cotter pins in the grey pull-out drawer in aisle 10... yes, with all the imagining of the cool projects that could be accomplished with all the things they were selling, it took me quite awhile to finally get around to looking for what I'd actually gone there to get.

And on the way home it came to me that someday I will have to face the blasphemous fact that I have much more fun in hardware stores than I ever do in bookstores or libraries.

May God have mercy on my soul.