So I spent New Year's eve fixin' stuff.

It pays to buy your tools off of the top shelf.

New year's eve my old Milwaukee electric drill crapped out. I believe I bought it in '79 or 80 and used it commercially for the first ten years I had it.

I abused it horribly and dropped it of of roofs and generally beat the hell  out of it and finally after 33 years of being beaten up it quit on me.

Yesterday I got curious and decided to do what men are supposed to do when they have a broken power tool. I took it apart. I quickly discovered there was a pebble jammed in the gears.

When I put it back together it ran like a top again. Go figure.

There are things I buy that are throwaway junk and things I buy that are not and I suppose you could say a wise man knows when to buy from the top shelf and when to buy a throwaway.

I was still in my 20s when I bought that tool and I'm in my 60s now. I'd have to say that the extra money I paid for it back then was money well spent.

For all the money I made with the damned thing, it was well paid for 25 years ago and since then it's just been a freebie.

It reminds me of the garage door opener I just replaced.

You have to understand the the old one lasted for damned near 20 years which some people may think isn't a long time for a unit like that. 

What you have to take into serious consideration is that the garage door opener is constantly being worked to death because of the layout of the house.

The front door is used so seldom I can't remember the last time I  used it before the garage door opener cratered. It very well may have been over a year or two.

The garage door opener goes up and down constantly and when you consider that it lasted about 20 year it is something to marvel at.

It was a half horsepower motor and it was replaced by a three quarter horse unit that was in a lot of other respects identical to the unit being replaced. I went with a heavier motor this time because the door really is pretty heavy. It's a solid, one piece wood door.

The new one does open the door faster and smoother. 

While I was replacing the opener I was thinking not that I was upset that the old one had died. I was grateful that it had lasted as long as it had and was pleased that it had served me as long as it had under the hard and continuous beating it had taken over two decades.

When the old unit died, it owed me nothing. 




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY