so it's the Old Cowboy today.  and as it's been for the last couple months,  there is one conversation.

What is he going to Do?   we already know what he is going to do.  when he can no longer navigate life in his home he will go live at his niece's home in a very small downstairs room.   he worked that out with her himself,  his doing.  totally.  he will sign his home over to she and her husband.   he will pay his way with his monthly income from interest on money he has.    but we need,  i guess,  to repeat and repeat and repeat.  same conversation.  word for word.   the reality is, he is no different really than he's been for the last couple years.  still capable of a lot.  but something has changed.  maybe putting his dog down.  i don't know.  but now,  suddenly,  it's the only thing he can think about.  

as people do,  he is thinking about all his Stuff.   mostly, it's the trillion movies he has pirated from his Dish thing.  trillions.  he suddenly is worried that the government is going to get wind and….well,  we don't know what might happen.  second tho,  is just all his belongings.  his 3 bedroom home with garage will reduce to an 8X12 foot room.  so…just him a bed and his GIANT flat screen TV.

and today, again,  until i thought i'd faint,  it's What Will I DO With……    fill in the blank.  He wants me to take his mother's dresser.  How do you say to someone  "I don't want your mother's dresser" ????   so…this being nothing new,  today instead of just being silent,  i said,  "Well,  i like your tools".

 

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rebar.  I LOVE rebar.  and a solid copper pipe

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a vice.

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something he put together for a particular purpose…two old shovel handles together with nuts and bolts.

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tools.    Tools.  Stuff made for specific purpose.  WHO invented them????  Who understood a purpose and then made something that would work?

I really really LOVE tools.

I don't want his mother's dresser.  I don't want her silverware.   in a certain way,  i don't even want all these tools.  Some are for things i will NEVER do.  Some i already HAVE.  but tools….to just let tools fly off into space,  to nowhere in particular…..eeeeeee.    

So.

Now they are HERE.   finding a place for them.   Just like he did when he came here from his familys Ranch in Colorado 19 years ago.  My inheritance.  ok. then.  ok.  keep it going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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40 responses to “me”

  1. julie Avatar
    julie

    I love a woman who loves Rebar.

    Like

  2. Dana Avatar

    Wow. Tools is right. They tell the story of his life as a working person and now they will join your working life and go on. That’s nice.

    Like

  3. grace Avatar

    oh…do i love Rebar. Rebar has the MOST GOOD PURPOSE
    for a million things. oh, do I LOVE rebar.

    Like

  4. grace Avatar

    they had a cattle ranch in Colorado. big equipment. big
    WORK. a lot of things i don’t really need now. but if
    i need to Begin Again somewhere else, i’ll need them.
    i love.
    love.
    tools

    Like

  5. jennann Avatar
    jennann

    Holy crap that’s a lot of tools!

    Like

  6. grace Avatar

    see anything you need?

    Like

  7. Judith of N. CA Avatar
    Judith of N. CA

    Been gone for 8 days and it’s lovely to catch up. Wow…tools, yummy…one never knows what one might need and so there you go. Also checking out some of the rusty washers and such…oh, la, la…soak some fabric in vinegar and water and wrap those precious little rings up !

    Like

  8. KAMFreeman Avatar

    tools, wonderful tools for every possible task that needs doing.. the little hand drill reminds me that I have one tucked away with a cup hook in the bit….used it for twisting threads, then doubling by bringing the ends together I made some great cording. Wow, so many great rusted pieces for mark making…and wire and so much to use when the need arises…it is a huge and wonderful addition to your life and your land..I have just gazed and gazed with delight at the photos…thanks Old Cowboy for tools..much better than a dresser or silver, for sure.

    Like

  9. Mo Crow Avatar

    I have the same hand drill with a cup hook in it too for twisting string, wire, and thread ! The tool that is so amazing are those plier nippers with the curved handles, what are they? never seen anything like them, just beautiful, all of it, what a good score!

    Like

  10. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Holy Crap indeed–what a strike! WOW. The copper pipe is special precious to me. Everything is precious really. Love the pliers with one curled handle. Such design, and usefulness. Plus you now have more rust than you will ever need. Hey, I used to soak tools I wanted to clean (in case you do) in kerosene for a few days, then scrub with steel wool, wash with soap and dry. But, I’d take the silver if it were offered. I’d sell it.

    Like

  11. Nanette Avatar

    Oh yes, I’d pick the tools too….love that hand drill. And all the rusted things to wrap cloth around, those rings on a wire, imagine the marks they’ll make. Bounty!

    Like

  12. patricia Avatar

    maybe i’m still in half dream mode, but when i first looked, so many of the tools seemed to have bird heads. and that one wooden tool, 3rd photo down, almost out of the frame on left–is that a tool for stretching fences? could be pretty handy.–oh y

    Like

  13. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Oh jeez, Rich is going to be beside himself when I show him these tool photos…he is like a kid in a candy store around tools!

    Like

  14. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    And to add, when my father died, I kept two things: his leather wallet and a pair of rusted old gardening scissors. He would trim the grass edges with them and one day he decided I was old enough to use them, I think I was about 7 and I was so proud…got blisters and they felt like badges of honor!

    Like

  15. dee Avatar

    mother lode is right!!! it is a delicate business, isn’t it? refusing or taking… I agree with Michelle, if the silverware is silver, I’d take it. May be worth $1,000’s of dollars. The loss of his dog could very well be critical. My sister’s cat is dying and I worry, worry. Hard to see her thinning, ailing cat the same weekend my husband and I install a hospital bed for my sister.

    Like

  16. beth Avatar

    The burden of stuff… Went through a lot of that with my mother. It’s a good time to say what you really want.

    Like

  17. Kathleen Marie Gstalter Avatar
    Kathleen Marie Gstalter

    OMG tools!!!!! Next to fiber tools are my favorite! Drooling over the vise and so many pieces to grind down into punches and stamps (trained as a silversmith in a younger life…) and all that lovely rust. When daddy passed I only wanted a handkerchief (which I actually got from him several months before he died to dab my eyes), his mug form Korea, and his drill press (with memories attached). I hear all his other tools have languished in my brother’s hands…too bad – all that steel! This was a very useful gift from the Old Cowboy.

    Like

  18. Martine Avatar

    omg Grace i came to say hi and wrote a real long story and then it was gone.
    Sorry……….till next time.
    XXXm

    Like

  19. grace Avatar

    tools.
    yes.
    tools. the rusty washers. yes. treasure. i am keeping
    the rusty washers, like diamonds, i am keeping them

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    yes. better than a dresser or silverware, yes. and he
    knows me, too. even in his Ify state. tools. he doesn’t think much of all the Goat stuff. he comes from cattle people. he refers to the Goats as “those damn goats”
    but i hold my own. they are each one, worth 10 cows, to
    me. i hold my own.

    Like

  21. grace Avatar

    i don’t know…that one with the curved handles…i’ll ask
    him. he might not know either. these are some, from before
    him. he might not know.

    Like

  22. grace Avatar

    i will want to clean the Vice in this way.
    the silver…no. there’s so much that goes on with “family”
    even if they never have the time to come by, ever
    but when it comes to silver, suddenly, it’s family.
    i stay away from that

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    YES. YES in neon. the rings…wire. YES. BOUNTY.

    Like

  24. grace Avatar

    handy.
    handy.
    hand y

    Like

  25. grace Avatar

    some of us can go a little crazy. today i looked. that
    truck bed full. and sorted. a lot i have, the crescent
    wrenches, the vice grips, i sorted and will return some
    in the next few days. will let them live out their own
    destiny.
    some, tho, i was too lustfull to let go of. the files.
    the files, i love. they do amazing things, the files

    Like

  26. grace Avatar

    this is Beauty Full. and yes. badges of HONOR. they were

    Like

  27. grace Avatar

    animals frequently preceed. there is a Knowing of that,
    even if it is not acknowledged.
    silverware…well, you know, family crawls out of the woodwork. i need to leave that to them.

    Like

  28. grace Avatar

    isn’t it SomeThing? how the story REPEATS?
    and i am so uhhhh, hard on him, but then i look at this
    place and think how my granddaughter calls it my Museum

    Like

  29. grace Avatar

    Kathleen…isn’t that an ODD combination????? fiber and steel????? i wonder a lot about it. but i DO love the
    things that are made so strong, so HARD, so indestructable,
    the tools…they are so amazing to me.

    Like

  30. grace Avatar

    Martine, i wish it hadn’t disappeared…i would LOVE your long story, i would have loved it. Can you try again?
    maybe?, maybe not? Maybe?
    i love you

    Like

  31. Mo Crow Avatar

    maybe some kind of fancy fencing pliers?

    Like

  32. grace Avatar

    could you email me your address?
    i’d like to send you someThing

    Like

  33. grace Avatar

    no…that wouldn’t be it…they are far to delicate for
    fencing

    Like

  34. tracy Avatar
    tracy

    My favorite is a thing like a hammer or an ice axe with a beautiful wooden handle. Tools always make you feel so competent, don’t they? The chair is awesome too. We have two similar and a glider from my husband’s Aunt Nona. It was a wonderful inheritance and when I sit out back in her chairs I say “Thank you Aunt Nona.

    Like

  35. Mo Crow Avatar

    Old Man Crow suggested the curved handle was so they wouldn’t slip in wet conditions, here’s links to two pairs of antique medical pliers that are very similar-
    http://www.goantiques.com/arnold-medical-pliers-489795
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Marshall-Dental-Extractor-Tool-No-3-6-7-8-w-Hunts-on-Handle-/261432692169?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cde9a4dc9
    so yours may well have been used for pulling teeth!
    I am so glad to be living in this 21st C & go to Buddhist dentist who looks after what’s left of my teeth with great care, lots of nitrous oxide so I feel no pain and is more handsome than Sting was all those years ago!!

    Like

  36. grace Avatar

    i think he’s right. they are a Vet tool…for teeth.
    oh, eeee…i never thought of Goat dentistry….EEEEEEEEEEEE

    Like

  37. Saskia Van Herwaarden Avatar

    omg, oh my word, this is just…well this is just absolutely fantastic!
    had to check the word rebar, now know what it means…lucky you Grace!!
    (family silver, funny that as I spent last weekend in Denmark with mother, sister and aunties: lots of talk about stuff that went to one person instead of another, lots of Russian silver as one great-aunt had travelled in Russia in the ’20ies buying souvenirs for the folks back home, they remember what should have gone to whom you know!! they do….best to leave silver ‘in the family’)

    Like

  38. grace Avatar

    the handles. they hold such importance, the handles.
    Tools. yes. competence. like we CAN.
    the chair is Out Back with the Goats. they sit on it. they move it all around with their sitting. i’d love to have a glider like this. an Aunt Nona glider

    Like

  39. grace Avatar

    there is safety between rebar and silver. rebar is GOOD.
    SAFE. FIERCE.
    silver…well, as you say…”best to leave silver in the family”. for sure.

    Like

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