Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Gummer Gear Diary (May 2, 2006)
by C.Martin
For me, May 2nd was a nice break from work, as it was election day in my area. However, instead of a lazy day home watching TV with my daughter, I had to scramble to help her get a school project for Wednesday done.
In the Louisville, KY metropolitan area, this is Derby Week, where horse racing fanatics go all crazy over what they call the most "thrilling two minutes" in sports. (I disagree as I have never seen a horse hit the wall and explode, or seen jockeys beating each other with sticks or clubs. And, as the horses dont' run much over 35 mph, it just seems like an incredibly boring chance to watch animals run in one really bug circle.)
As part of the area's Derby craziness, my daughter's school has a Derby Hat day contest, where children decorate hats for the Derby festivities and get voted on.
Leatherman WAVE to the rescue! After stopping in at the local hobby.craft store we raced home and began work on a rose-festooned sun hat complete with racetrack brim and little tiny horses.
I was able to use my Wave to cut wire, and the scissors proved invaluable for cutting felt and string almost constantly. In fact I had to use my diamond sharpening stone to hone the scissors back to sharpness after a few hours. Finally, the diamond file on the Wave also came in handy for sharpening the end of a wire strand I was trying to insert in the edge of the brim to keep the hat nice and rigid, instead of floppy.
At the end of a long, nine hours of sewing, gluing cutting and more, my daughter (who went to bed seven hours into the all day project) had a great, albeit, silly, hat.
Multi-tools, for obsessive parents and survival.
For me, May 2nd was a nice break from work, as it was election day in my area. However, instead of a lazy day home watching TV with my daughter, I had to scramble to help her get a school project for Wednesday done.
In the Louisville, KY metropolitan area, this is Derby Week, where horse racing fanatics go all crazy over what they call the most "thrilling two minutes" in sports. (I disagree as I have never seen a horse hit the wall and explode, or seen jockeys beating each other with sticks or clubs. And, as the horses dont' run much over 35 mph, it just seems like an incredibly boring chance to watch animals run in one really bug circle.)
As part of the area's Derby craziness, my daughter's school has a Derby Hat day contest, where children decorate hats for the Derby festivities and get voted on.
Leatherman WAVE to the rescue! After stopping in at the local hobby.craft store we raced home and began work on a rose-festooned sun hat complete with racetrack brim and little tiny horses.
I was able to use my Wave to cut wire, and the scissors proved invaluable for cutting felt and string almost constantly. In fact I had to use my diamond sharpening stone to hone the scissors back to sharpness after a few hours. Finally, the diamond file on the Wave also came in handy for sharpening the end of a wire strand I was trying to insert in the edge of the brim to keep the hat nice and rigid, instead of floppy.
At the end of a long, nine hours of sewing, gluing cutting and more, my daughter (who went to bed seven hours into the all day project) had a great, albeit, silly, hat.
Multi-tools, for obsessive parents and survival.
