Once upon a time, when I became a single woman, one of my single female friends told me that the first thing she did when she got divorced was to buy a power drill. I figured she knew what she was talking about, so I did that, too. It was good to have but certainly not the end-all and be-all of what I needed to get along without a male partner.
I was divorced in 1991, and became a ham radio operator in 1997. As one of the sparce females in the radio hobby, I got lots of help and advice from male radio friends. One told me, on the air, that I could "bring [my] bobbie pins" and join him in a tower project. (I could virtually hear the thud of other listeners hitting the floor in disbelief that he had said something that sexist on the air, so I seized the moment and had fun with it for a lot of years.) Another time on the air, one of my radio friends told me that he would check the spark plugs in my car if I supplied my feeler gauges. "My WHAAAT??" The whole listening radio world laughed. (I know what feeler gauges are now, but I sure didn't back then. Do you??)
So, what tools you really need in order to survive as a female alone? Think about it. Here's my list
1. Backscratcher.
Self-explanatory, because sometimes things itch back there that you just can't reach. Truth be known, even if you have a spouse or partner willing to scratch your back for you, they often don't get the exact right spot. Although scratching your own back with a backscratcher sounds very unromantic, it gets the job done. I have four bamboo scratcher wands--one of which was my dad's. Dad's came back to the States from Japan in 1958, and stayed as part of the supplies of the nest he had by his recliner. God help you if his permanently-stained Jim Beam glass, his TV guide from the newspaper, or his backscratcher were out of place!
2. Stepstool.
My house burns out light bulbs like you wouldn't believe. Having no one tall in the house to reach the burned ones to replace them, I invested in a collapsible stepstool. It also helps me reach the top shelves of my kitchen cabinets. Not pretty, but very useful.
3. Grabber.
Grabber? What's a grabber, you might ask? A grabber is a little square or circular flexible rubber thingie that you can use to grab a stubborn jar lid in order to loosen it. This is my most critical "single person" tool. I'm usually pretty good at opening jars, having learned some of the tricks from my mother, but as I get older and have less strength in my hands, the grabber has become essential to my kitchen functioning.
The very first grabber I had was a give-away from the Indiana State Fair many years ago. On the front was printed that it came from the "Animal Board of Health"...and the rest of it showed the recommended temperatures for cooking different types of meat. (Megan got a charge out of that. She said it sure didn't seem healthy for the animals that had been cooked!) That piece of rubber developed a tear in it and eventually disappeared. Do you think I could find anything to replace it? No...but I did find some rubbery squares at the grocery store that were meant to go under things to prevent them from scratching wood surfaces. They were sold in packs of three. I figured I was good forever with those. But, as with socks in the dryer, they eventually disappeared too, and I could NOT find them again anywhere. Finally, in desperation, I bought a bit of rubbery netting designed to go under throw rugs to keep them from sliding. I cut out several squares of that and stashed the rest. (I have MORE than enough left over to keep me for awhile, if I can remember where I put it.) I had to slap one of them down for Grandpa Phil when the family was here at Christmas to help loosen a jar lid that even he couldn't get. Worked like a charm!
4. Magnifying glass.
I hate this one, even though I need it. I can't hand a bottle to someone and ask them to read the fine print to me...so...even with my "readers" on, I have to resort to magnification. Unfortunately, the magnifier I have isn't really cutting it anymore, so I need to resort to bigger and better. I get really irritated with magazines, etc, that print things on a colored background. Without good light and good contrast, I miss a lot.
As for other tools, I have them all--hammers and screwdrivers and pliers. Feeler gauges. Even soldering irons and all of the other clap-trap that ham radio requires. But the tools that get used the most and are the most helpful are the ones listed. The only one missing is the one that plants money trees. Now, that one would be really, really useful!
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