Tool Trauma and Elevation Exhaustion

My father arrived from Arkansas on Saturday night. We have had a pretty good time since he has been here. Yesterday after I got back home from church we spent the time talking and watching Fox News. After dinner we played a game with the family and later watched a movie.

Today to liven things up, I decided to ask for his help in fixing my weed eater. He has always been good at fixing things. I had given up on this trimmer and went out last week and bought a new, cheaper one. I wanted to buy one like the one that was broken, but I could not find one anywhere. The advantage to the trimmer that is broken is that it has wheels and I don't have to carry it around. It is a two stroke engine, so I don't have to worry about electrical cords.

As we tore into my trimmer this morning, I was reminded of the tool trauma that I used to go through when I was a child and teenager. My father would ask me to get a particular tool and I would have no idea what he was talking about. I would bring as many tools as I could carry to him, in hopes that one of them was the correct one.

Today he asked me for a tool and I found myself once again in the same situation. Apparently, I still do not know what a 32nd ratchet is. I was pretty lucky because it was in the pile of tools that I had brought outside.

The good news is that I think we might have discovered the trimmer's problem. We are hoping that it won't start because of a small line that has a break in it. After our discovery, we decided to put the trimmer on hold until tomorrow when we can replace the line.

After the kids got home from school, we hiked up to Timpanogos Cave. This is a 1.5 mile hike up a fairly steep paved trail that gains 1065 feet in elevation. The cave is at 6730 feet above sea level. My father did really well. Even though he had some elevation issues, he made it up to the cave in pretty good time. I hope that when I am 73 years old I can do as well as he did.

I think that I wore him out a little today. He has gone to bed and it is only 8:30. Maybe tomorrow, we will have a less strenuous day.