As mundane a task this is, I’m sorting through Father’s bizarre method of consumable hardware storage. He, presumably like most of the population, just threw a machine screw, washer, or not into a coffee container until which time, days, months, or years later, he would fish through the container to find the right size, material, thread type, and grade of hardware.
My way of dealing with his legacy is “fixing” it. No, I don’t mean that in a terrible way. Just that, to gain independence from our parents, we have to sort through stuff and make determinations of what they want to keep or abandon of the legacy left to them. This is not just physical things, but ideals, habits, beliefs, etc.
My belief is that I should walk up to a container of organized smaller containers that are organized further until they become unique and usable items. I should be able to stretch out my arm, read a label (mach 1/4″ med) (quarter0-inch, medium thread machine screw) and pick the length I want. In the same bin, I want to pick a nut that is the right size to fit it.
I do not want to sit there in a shop, dump a bucket of rusted shit onto a table, and sort through it all to find that something doesn’t exist. That’s horse shit. As Trevan Wong would say, Remember the Seven Ps – Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
So, this is my statement to the Old Man – thanks for leaving your shit for me to clean up. I will continue to be my father’s son and do those duties. The Book itself says to honour your parents. This is my version of it.