i abide by what is called the carpenter's rule....it makes no difference how long you've had it, and not needed it....if you throw it away - you will need it in three days...
Oh, my goodness.
My late father was a tinkerer, a rough and finish carpenter, and at one point a Coleman repairman, and he amassed a veritable trove of hardware, fasteners, tools, spare parts, and gewgaws over his lifetime. When he had a stroke and my folks had to move out of their house into assisted living, I took everything in their cellar and hauled it to a tiny shed on a lakefront property we co-owned. Because, when you're six kilometres from the nearest hardware store, no phone, no internet, and you need something RIGHT NOW to solve a problem....
A decade later, my neighbor at the lake, an ex-Canadian Army combat engineer officer, was building a camper out of an old white Chevrolet van, to tour around in during high pandemic. A fine gent. One day, he saw me tooling around my mother's property eating blueberries or whatever, and hailed me. Because I'd told him I had a shed full of tools and stuff, and if he ever needed anything, to not be shy. "Hey! Look, this is a longshot, but I'm trying to rig a potable water system in the van, and I need a 3/8" hose clamp. The hardware store in the village doesn't have any that small. I'll have to drive sixty kilometres to Shawinigan. We were planning on leaving for Gaspé tomorrow. I don't suppose....?"
"I might. Cut me a one-inch piece of the hose you need to clamp, and give me a half an hour." He did as bidden. I climbed into the shed's attic with the hose sample, roused-out a couple of roll-your-own tobacco cans that my father had labelled "HOSE CLAMPS," and spilled them onto the floor. Ten, fifteen minutes later, I walked down the hill and dropped the appropriate clamp into the major's hand. I had only one of 'em.
But it worked. Solved his problem.
