I'm sitting here on a rainy day, watching the remains of a huricane drenching our area, and doing indoor sorts of things. Wipe down the guns with an oily cloth, touch up the pocket knives on a strop, stay out of the better halfs way.
Then I get to my peanut. A nice little knife, gets carried alot and used alot for most pocket knife type of chores. A little swipe on a fine diamond home and then the leather and the little blade is shaving sharp.
I sit and look out at the storm and the water running down the street.
Water.
I think back to a time when I was knee high to a regular size mongel dog. I was down the basement looking for something and I notice a puddle of water where there shouldn't be water. I go tell dad, and he comes down and takes a look. The outside water bib shutoff valve is leaking. I ask him if he's gonna call a plumber, but he laughs and says a little problem like this is just a minutes work. He looks at the shutoff valve for a few seconds and tells me to go get him some string, and the contianer of Vasoline from the bathroom medicine cabnet. I do so, and when I get back he's already at work.
He didn't even go get a real screwdriver. He had his keychain screwdriver out and was unscrewing and removing the valve shutoff handle. I guess he'd already turned off the water while I was upstairs. Once he had the wheel shaped handle off, he took out his little peanut pocket knife and went to work.
With the smaller pen blade, he picked out and scraped out some black crumbly stuff from around the valve fitting. Then he took the jute twine from me. Using his peanut, he cuts off a foot long length of it, and then does something I'll never forget. He takes some vasoline, and between his thumb and index finger starts to work the goop into the cotton jute twine. He does this till he has enough to wind around the valve stem, and pack it down in the groove where the black stuff crumbbled out of. He trims off the excess with a carefull cut of the knife, and uses the blade tip to work it all down in the seat. Then he replaces the wheel shaped handle and screws the retaining screw back in with his Sears keychain screwdriver.
Reaching down to the main water cutoff, he turns the wheel, and there's this rushing sound of water back into the pipe. We stand there watching the repacked valve, and a single drop of water beads up and drops off, then nothing. No more leak. I make some comments how neat that is, but don't understand how the string made a gasket.
"Well you see son, vasoline is a waterproof compound, and making the cotton string permiated with it, made a waterproof seal. Thats all it needed, a new seal, so we made one. No big deal."
I watched as dad carefully wiped off his pocket knife and dropped it back in his pocket, and then replaced the 4-way pocket screwdriver back on his keyring.
"But you didn't even use anything from your tool box!" I said to him
"Well, it was just a small problem. Most problems in life are simple when you stand back and look at just what you really need to do. All the tools in the world don't matter at all if you don't look things over carefull before you start."
Then I get to my peanut. A nice little knife, gets carried alot and used alot for most pocket knife type of chores. A little swipe on a fine diamond home and then the leather and the little blade is shaving sharp.
I sit and look out at the storm and the water running down the street.
Water.
I think back to a time when I was knee high to a regular size mongel dog. I was down the basement looking for something and I notice a puddle of water where there shouldn't be water. I go tell dad, and he comes down and takes a look. The outside water bib shutoff valve is leaking. I ask him if he's gonna call a plumber, but he laughs and says a little problem like this is just a minutes work. He looks at the shutoff valve for a few seconds and tells me to go get him some string, and the contianer of Vasoline from the bathroom medicine cabnet. I do so, and when I get back he's already at work.
He didn't even go get a real screwdriver. He had his keychain screwdriver out and was unscrewing and removing the valve shutoff handle. I guess he'd already turned off the water while I was upstairs. Once he had the wheel shaped handle off, he took out his little peanut pocket knife and went to work.
With the smaller pen blade, he picked out and scraped out some black crumbly stuff from around the valve fitting. Then he took the jute twine from me. Using his peanut, he cuts off a foot long length of it, and then does something I'll never forget. He takes some vasoline, and between his thumb and index finger starts to work the goop into the cotton jute twine. He does this till he has enough to wind around the valve stem, and pack it down in the groove where the black stuff crumbbled out of. He trims off the excess with a carefull cut of the knife, and uses the blade tip to work it all down in the seat. Then he replaces the wheel shaped handle and screws the retaining screw back in with his Sears keychain screwdriver.
Reaching down to the main water cutoff, he turns the wheel, and there's this rushing sound of water back into the pipe. We stand there watching the repacked valve, and a single drop of water beads up and drops off, then nothing. No more leak. I make some comments how neat that is, but don't understand how the string made a gasket.
"Well you see son, vasoline is a waterproof compound, and making the cotton string permiated with it, made a waterproof seal. Thats all it needed, a new seal, so we made one. No big deal."
I watched as dad carefully wiped off his pocket knife and dropped it back in his pocket, and then replaced the 4-way pocket screwdriver back on his keyring.
"But you didn't even use anything from your tool box!" I said to him
"Well, it was just a small problem. Most problems in life are simple when you stand back and look at just what you really need to do. All the tools in the world don't matter at all if you don't look things over carefull before you start."
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