On Having the Right Tools

This morning doing the usual early-morning-newspaper-with-coffee thing, I read about the second storm to clobber the Colorado / Denver area in a week. Having spent some time in Colorado, watching the snow drift up to the windowsills and higher, I certainly can empathize. Well, up to a point. In the midst of reading an AP article about how folks were stocking up on emergency staples [food and such; I don't think the lines were terribly long at the office supply stores], came the following:

Ace Hardware in Longmont sold 260 snow shovels -- its entire stock -- in the first three hours it was open Thursday, cashier Ryan Goforth said.

Let's see... the purchasers of the 260 snow shovels live in Colorado, for heaven's sake, and they didn't have snow shovels?! We live in the desert where any snow we get is usually gone by 10:30 a.m. -- or at the latest, 1:30 p.m. -- and we have a snow shovel. Hmmm... OK, so we imported it from New Jersey, and we didn't buy it, we inherited it as part of maybe half a dozen snow shovels, and I kept this one because it had been repaired several times, which I thought was kind of oddly interesting. In other words, I kept it for its artistic value, rather than any practical value.

So -- ahem! -- rethinking the whole last minute show shovel purchasing in Colorado, maybe these folks are newbies to Colorado, or perhaps consider...

1. The last time I went on vacation, I flew and wanted to take my knitting, so after reading the TSA website the day before I left, at the last minute I went to my LYS [local yarn shop] to get bamboo needles, both cable-style and double-points, in several sizes. I didn't have the bamboo dpns for the socks and I had a bamboo cable needle for the scarf but I couldn't seem to find it.
2. Last week, doing some last minute Christmas shopping, I purchased a bamboo double-ended afghan crochet hook -- with cable extender!!! -- for myself because you never know when you're going to need to crochet a lap robe wide enough to cover the cul-de-sac turn-around.

I have not just recently started to indulge in the fiber arts, but for some reason I don't always have the tools that I need and I often have tools that I haven't even begun to think about using yet.

So, cutting the Colorado folks a little slack, do you suppose maybe...

• They'd just moved there?
• They'd broken a previous snow shovel?
• Their chiropractor told them to use an ergonomic style shovel?
• Someone in their household had repurposed their old shovel by painting a quaint holiday scene on it and tying a bow around it and hanging it in the entryway?
• An additional family member had become motivated to assist with snow shoveling and would benefit from having their own shovel to use?
• They'd misplaced their shovel (totally possible, considering not just how cluttered their garage might be, but how deep their snow is getting to be)?

Still, when I turned on my computer this morning, I read the exact AP article on-line, with the exception that the quote about the snow shovel had been edited out. Perhaps it was removed because it showed Coloradans in a less-than-flattering context (at least 260 of them)? Perhaps Mr. Goforth's supervisor asked him what exactly he was doing, talking to the press, while all those people standing in line with their shovels and sacks of rock salt? Or perhaps a competing hardware store wondered why THEY didn't get listed in the AP story, because they still had shovels in stock? I don't know, really.

However, sometime soon, I'm hoping to figure out how to store my knitting needles and crochet hooks so that I can find them again and know what I have and what I need to stock. Some of the crochet hooks and the orphan dpns are in an Ace Hardware mug on the desk in my studio, but I often have a hard time finding the surface of the desk. [NOTE to readers, especially those connected to other non-Ace Hardware stores: except for a Lowe's yardstick which is leaning against the wall in a corner with my t-squares, I have no accessories from any other hardware stores in my studio and I would have mentioned them if I did. Have a nice, organized, well-stocked day!]

And while we're on the subject of snow shovels, here's a great link -- http://wovel.com I want one! I want one! -- Because you never know when you might need just the right tool for that special project!!

Diving in to Creativity

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, but if I get up now and start walking away from the computer that won't help me with writing and posting this first blog entry, will it? Not only that, I'll take a deep breath -- OK? -- and admit it: There isn't exactly a farm yet, nor any sheep (green or otherwise), except in my imagination. Here goes...!