Oh the joys of new tools! Christmas came with heavy, shiny fun—literally with a giant ratchet and wrench set, compliments of my father.  I think my older brother was secretly jealous. I had become the tool guru in my family's younger generation.  I got the cool stuff, the manly stuff and was proud to show it off.  I let it's big case sit gallantly in my brother's California living room till the very last hour before packing. 

I  carried the 30 pound set that would be the key to cracking the cage on my latest refinishing project.  My new tools were divided amongst my checked and carry on baggage to distribute the weight, just squeezing the large plastic case in. Security had a field day, removing each and every sealed baggy of parts, along with all of my personal items. They rescanned about four times till they were satisfied. I yelled to the scanner man what exactly he was looking at, sweetly of course, but he continued on his search. I think he was surprised to find this much hardware in a girl's bag.

I watched in dismay as the TSA attendant attempted to repack my bag. Grimacing when he finished and was unable to come close to zipping it. I regained permission to handle the bag and put it back in the painstaking order it had started in. Each item a puzzle that would only fit one way.  Getting it back to NY without any of the items being confiscated, I went about putting it together. I called my Dad twice during this process unsure what went where. Each baggie was full of what should have been an orderly arrangement of bits. Instead, they mixed different measurements together for the three gages of ratchets, making it a 45 minute process to complete. Looking at it all put together, it looks much easier than the big empty case and the daunting assortment of baggies clustered beside it. This picture might make it look small, but it is much bigger in real life.

I pressed each piece into their place, lining up the right ends, showing off the sizes and double checking my work.  I sent a victory picture to my dad, boasting my slow success. I queried him as to why each piece only "set" in it's place, rather than "locked" into place. It just didn't seem very secure. He warned me NOT to open the case upside down, as each piece would spill out. This was the last thing I wanted. He continued that his old set has a big Sharpie warning of which side was the top, after a few surprise explosion openings, he learned his lesson the hard way. Duly noted. I kept the label on the front to serve as my warning. He later built a solid and beautiful rolling oak tool box to secure each tool with magnets and straps. It is brilliant.

So far I have picked out the right sizes on my first try, with a small celebration smile.  I think this is the beginning of a lifelong friendship with these tools. That is, until I upgrade to a bigger set and possibly make my own custom box for all of them, or convince my Dad to take on another project.