Yesterday evening I ordered prints of some digital photos, fully expecting to wait until the next day for my order to be finished.  The man behind the counter told me he could do them within 15 minutes if I wanted to do a little shopping.  Having no shopping to do, but a choice between wandering around the grocery store or the hardware store, I made the obvious decision.  I chose the hardware store.

An especially well-stocked hardware store, as this one was, is a wonder to behold.  I made my way up and down the aisles, looking at all the doodads, wondering what some of them were for, thinking of ways to repurpose some of the others.  Did you know that you can purchase drill bits in 13-inch lengths?  Those with spade bits even come in 16-inch lengths.

Nuts, bolts, nails, washers, pipe, screws, rings, wire, rope, clips, hinges, locks, chain, switches, tools for every imaginable job – the potential is incredible.  Fun, fun, fun!  What could I make with all this stuff?

During my prowling, I noticed a few tools – a tape measure, a box cutter, a puny hammer – decorated with flowers.  I’m assuming that’s to attract the ladies, although, thankfully, they weren’t labeled as such.  If they were, I would have been insulted.  Like I need some floofy flowers in order to pick up a tool.  Hah!

I do, however, appreciate that tool manufacturers are finally redesigning tools to accommodate the generally smaller frames of women.  I don’t have the muscle mass my husband does to use in struggling with over-sized or heavy tools.  The redesign of staplers is a case in point.  A traditional heavy-duty stapler forces the user to squeeze the handle at the back end of the stapler, causing the stapler to jump off of the surface being stapled if enough forward pressure isn’t being applied.  The actions of squeezing at the back and pushing forward work against each other.  Somebody got smart and moved the handle to the front of the stapler, so that when the handle is pushed, you also push into the stapling surface.  Brilliant.  (Here’s a picture of a Craftsman Professional Easy-Fire Stapler/Nail Gun, so you can see what I’m talking about.)  By redesigning tools with women in mind, we also make it easier for the guys.  Just because they can grunt over a project, doesn’t mean they have to.  They can also enjoy the flowers if they like.