I have a workbench in the basement.   I rarely use it but I’ve got one – complete with a vice, two drawers full of tools and two toolboxes sitting on top.  Then there’s a little drawer thingee full of nails and screws.  If I am called on to change a light bulb or hang a picture, I even have a toolbelt and a hardhat that I wear (you can never be too careful).   We handymen are semper paratis (see post of June 1, 2012).

However the tools don’t do much good sitting in the basement gathering cobwebs on my toolbench. Soooooo, I keep selective tools in the trunk of my car.  My car is a rolling workbench.  Never know when they might come in handy.  I mean I have a fire axe, an E.T. (“entrenching tool”), a crowbar, an air pump (I mean what good does that do sitting in the garage?) and a Heinz 57 assortment of hammers, screwdrivers and wrenches. And I have the obligatory jumper cables and a couple of road flares.  I could probably build a 4 story building with the stuff in my trunk.  Over the years, these things have been selectively (and once urgently) useful (“gosh Scott, I’m sure glad you have that quarter inch hex wrench with the double bend . . .” ) but for the most part, they gather cobwebs in the trunk of my car.    But I’ve got them if I ever need them. . . .