Tools of the Trade

The story behind the Mop Fair dates back to the 12th Century (see this post), but if you were asked what ONE tool would depict your trade, I wonder what you’d say?

Mine is easy.
Have pencil will travel.
I may not have a curly piece of paper, letters after my name or a port folio of qualifications, but I do have common sense, a methodical brain, can multi task, spell and add up.
As a bonus, I actually enjoy figure work, and have good time management skills. As an aside, I also make a good cup of tea.
This therefore gives me a good chance of finding work in an office.
Hubby on the other hand is a practical guy, so I’d say his tool would be a screwdriver (all sniggering at my terminology must cease!).
Apart from playing with all the buttons on any gadget he can get his hands on, his other favourite pastime is taking things apart.
I have watched in fascination as he meticulously unscrews whatever has failed to get at the innards and proceed to fix it. It all goes back to being told to keep him as he was useful of course, but he and his trusty screwdriver have saved us a fortune.

So many people, myself included, have joined the TAS (Throw Away Society).
Something doesn’t work, so it’s tossed in the bin simply because we don’t know how it worked anyway or why it doesn’t now.
This isn’t him (the bum’s the wrong shape 😉 ), but he used to do his own car maintenance before I met him, and does the servicing of the boat himself as far as possible now.
This morning, he had the dehumidifier apart to clean out the fan and grill so that it runs more quietly and thus more efficiently.
I like to boast that he can fix anything with a three pin plug on it, and if it hasn’t got one, he can soon remedy that!

We had an instance the other day when we discovered we’d left our hot water on all day, simply because we have no visible sign to remind us.
That has now been changed, as armed with his trusty screwdriver and the relevant materials, he installed a nice shiny red light that comes on by our central heating box.
You may remember from the earlier days here our cassette box housing.

His 12 volt drill charger failed a couple of weeks ago, but the drill itself was still good. Using a piece of cable and a cigarette lighter fitting, he has made up a lead for it that connects into our 12 volt system on the boat. His screwdriver came in most useful for the wiring.

Electrical Safety with him is paramount so one of his vital pieces of equipment is his multi-meter.
Although the probes beeped when they touched, it no longer registered a charge, so it was put to one side until Hubby could look at it properly.
He doesn’t like to throw anything anyway unless it is absolutely necessary, liking to give his ‘aides’ the benefit of the doubt before disposal.
Also, the cost of a new multi-meter varied from £15 to over £100, and whilst he doesn’t need the all-singing-all-dancing-can-make-the-tea-as-well models, he does prefer certain specifics for the jobs at hand.
He took it apart today (after the dehumidifier) and everything inside looked intact, though a little grubby. He gave it a gentle springclean with a fibreglass pen, then reassembled it.
There was a sad little noise and a ball bearing popped out onto the floor.
‘Ah.’

Those two letters when spoken in such a way, especially by him, speak volumes, but not to be deterred, he picked it up, took the thing apart again, found the hole where the bearing belonged, and put it back together. Something had moved in the interim, so it was another dismantle, tweak and rejoining of the parts, and lo! It is now working a treat.He considers himself a dinosaur, as he is old school when it comes to electrical repairs. However, here in the boating world, a lot of people have OLD BOATS, and old boats mean OLD TECHNOLOGY.
And word is getting around.