Tools and The Engineer

My Dad is quite a handyman and woodworker. His college degree was in electrical engineering and he makes beautiful furniture. He can do anything (except plumbing.) Not that I'm biased or anything. It's a true fact that the light shines out of my Daddy.

I learned about tools very early in life from hanging out in his shop. I knew they were not toys and should be handled properly. Using a phillips head screwdriver as an awl or an ice pick was simply not acceptable. As soon as I was out on my own, I began collecting tools; mostly Craftsman because if I did manage to mangle one, Sears would replace it. By the time I married the Engineer, I had quite a collection: screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, pliers, electric drill, saber saw, socket set, alan wrenches, staple gun, shovels, rakes, pruners and loppers. I had two tool boxes for the small tools and a milk carton for the larger ones, plus, of course, well organized storage for nails, screws, etc.

When I married the Engineer and we moved in together, somehow my tools moved in with his. Gradually they migrated from their original toolboxes into his toolboxes and his stuff showed up in my storage containers. I now have a minimal set of tools hidden for my own use because I don't like to search through his stuff looking for mine.

The Engineer was mostly impressed with my tool collection, but he made fun of my shrub rake from the get go. He wanted to throw it out, but I wouldn't let him, insisting that shrub rakes were very useful. He said that if I thought I was going to get some work out of the cats by having tools sized for them I was hopelessly mistaken.

Here we are, not quite ten years into the marriage, and what's one of his favorite tools?

My shrub rake.

He even customized the handle so he can reach farther with it. Of course, he does use it as a swimming pool tool instead of in the garden, but, what the heck, he wouldn't be without it.