A rule for my wife

 My wife was working on a project to make and take to a craft show for the following day. She was getting nowhere fast so I thought I would lend a hand. We started an assembly line in getting things made. We were wing-ING it…we had a basic idea but no real plan. (My normal type of project.)

We got to a part where we needed to drill 5 spaced holes. I said just eye it, it is no big deal. She wanted to lay them out neatly so they would look nice. She asks me for a ruler. The first one I gave her was an old broken yard stick with the first 7”es broken off. I had neatly cut the broken part off right at the 7” mark so the rule started at 7. I can use it without a big problem…the rest of it is OK. 

I got the “LOOK” and was asked for one that started at “0”. I found an old metric ruler for her and I got the “LOOK” again. I said “it started at 0”. The next rule I found has most of the numbers missing…I use it as a straight edge. Another “look” was received. I was having fun.

The last rule I gave her was on a carpenters square and there was nothing wrong with it. She looked at it and said “the numbers on the rule go from 12 to 1, not 1 to 12. Everything was OK when I suggested to her to turn it over. The rest of the project went OK and without “tool problems”.

It does not bother me to use my collection of not perfect rulers. If I need to do something that needs a accurate measurement I will dig out a good rule, but for most things, my junk rulers work OK. I can think outside the box and off the rule. *-)