I was back in Home Depot on Monday returning the grates for my grill.  I had bought the wrong size the day before.  After making the exchange I decided to go down the lumber aisles.  My grandfather and father owned a lumber company on West 18th Street and seeing and smelling the fresh wood reminded me of them and the days I spent there as a kid.  Of course, it wasn't just "wood".  The aisles were stocked with premium pine, common board, birch, marker board, sheathing, oak, etc.  There a lot of different kinds of wood.  What was the difference between all these?  I had no idea.  My father must have known.   He had a company brochure and I used to test him on it.  I would ask "what is an M325?" and he would say "3 inch half round molding," or something like that.

Customers were carrying out sheets of lumber.  I would never buy a sheet of lumber. What would I do with it?  They must have known because most of them had on work boots and carried measuring tapes on their hips.

I explored more aisles in Home Depot, thinking there must be something I would be able to figure out, though I reminded myself I could not even get the right size grate on my grill without two trips.  I came across and easy to install gutter system.  I examined the pieces.  End cap, center drop, gutter guard, drip edge.  I wonder if I could put that together.  But then I saw somethings called spike and ferrule and outside miter and I walked away.

The drill aisle was scary.  I picked up a 3/8ths keyed chuck reversible drill after passing the angle die grinder and the roofing cutter.  I then quickly returned the reversible drill to the shelf thinking that if it turned on by mistake and went in reverse it would put a hole in my head.   And if that was bad, I walked briskly past the one handed bar clamp and spreader, and the 18 inch annihilator. 

Another aisle over was plumbing, which had hundreds of items.  I waited until someone asked a store clerk for help, just curious to see what they would ask for.  They wanted a soil pipe adapter and a flush brushing.  I wonder if I need those too.

I became despondent and looked at my soft smooth hands.  All of this stuff made me feel incompetent.  The only thing I have fixed is tightening the screws on the handles of our kitchen drawers.

Heading towards the exit I came across stacks of Charmin Ultra Soft.  At least I know what to do with those.