When I was a young boy I loved going into the Hardware shop and the smell of paraffin was just great. I got hooked in a hardware store sounds like a song but I did and all the different goods sold made it an Aladdin’s cave. As an adult my favorite comedy sketch was the two Ronnies Corbett and Barker in the famous fork handles scene. Corbett wanted four candles Barker was selling fork handles or vice versa.
Today the sight of mud, sludge and leaves in a muddy slimy , watery concoction outside the house suddenly affected me that I decided it all had to go. Off I went to the Hardware shop to get a hard brush. It was almost comedy. I asked the lady if she sold brushes and she thought I said I was in a rush but could I please wait whilst she dealt with another customer. I said ‘ no , brushes ‘ and she said ‘ we do have brushes ‘ . Gesticulating I went round the back and saw what I needed. I approached the counter and said to her ‘ excuse me there are two price stickers on this , which one is it ? ‘
The lady said one price is for the pole and one price for the brush and I said I need both . Then she told me to ‘ add the two stickers up and then get the price ‘
I wondered if she was giving me the brush off and whether she really couldn’t add 8 to 16. Anyway I bought the pair and off I went. I vigorously swept the outside and being good neighborly ended up doing the terrace. I was mistaken by one woman as a road sweeper from the Council as I had on my cloth cap. If I had taken my hat off or doffed my cap to her it could have been a scene in the garden of Downton Abbey. As it was I said I couldn’t come up the road and ‘ do hers ‘ but she could gladly borrow the brush.
It was a slight interlude from the day job and real fun. I enjoyed the cut and thrust of the sweep and bristled with pride as I looked upon a job well done. As the rain fell a school bus passed by and soaked me from the splash. It was time to go and get back to real work clearing up the mess of many and managing the mayhem of mankind. The problem is I don’t use a brush to do it only a mobile I phone which fortunately Steve Jobs didn’t price separately for the functions , messaging , talking, e mailing, what’s apping, filing, note taking, recording , photographing . Social media making , calculating, weather watching, star gazing, blog writing , texting, banking , news reading, stock trading and much more.
Times for many are Hard Times but life has been made so much easier yet with that tracker in hand much more complex and mental illness abounds from the constant pick up and out down of that I phone fully connected to every other Apple device. Now you can only do so much with a brush but you can really sweep up with your I phone. You can also stay in contact with your neighbors and her up the road. The lady in the hardware shop who could hardly hear has even got one.
qbitblogger 