ONE CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY TOOLS

Any thoughts or suggestions to the contrary should be totally discarded. Two recent episodes, neither of which bore any similarity to the other, created stalwart support for the premise.

In one scenario, it was suggested that I replace some thirty year old fittings on a trash pump with more efficient quick disconnect fittings. The challenge of determining proper sizes of necessary fittings, while being confronted with the cast iron, galvanized and PVC plastic materials involved, was eventually overcome, after much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

After a rather long excursion to acquire necessary fittings (did you know they come in male and female), I returned to the scene of the crime to establish my battle plan. I soon realized that, although the older designers may not have yet envisioned the more convenient “quick release” type fittings, they certainly had perfected “permanence” in their design.

The eventual installation of the marvelous quick release fittings was accomplished in good time, but the removal of the old fittings from the reinforced lines and cast iron pump required frequent trips to the old workshop and the application of tools I had forgotten existed. The removal of those old connections required all of my meager ingenuity, short of dynamite, and I was contemplating mixing a batch, when an old drill and a hacksaw blade did the trick.

Those “old” fittings may not have been the most convenient, but they sure did an effective job. And it took several trips back to the old workshop to return the tools.