It's [not] Hammer time!

I’m a one-tool kind of gal.

When Andrew and I got married, I brought a hammer into the marriage. An orange-handled hammer- not one of those sissified floral ones. It is a rugged, manly, hazard-orange hammer.

When something needs hammering, I’m there. I’ve learned how to re-sink the nails in the hardwood floor, remove baseboards, and any amount of demolition work – all with my trusty orange hammer. Until today, I hadn’t found any need for any other tools.

Sure, I can operate a drill, and I’m a whiz with an allen wrench, but the hammer is my one true love.

This morning, I was driving to an appointment, and my tape deck adapter (for my iPod) was having some issues. There are two little plastic gears on the inside (whose purpose was unknown to me, then), and when they get jostled (like when you hit a bump, brake enthusiastically, etc), they jam. That’s when the auto-flippy mechanism kicks in, and it tries to flip the “tape” direction until it can un-jam enough to keep rolling. (There is no actual tape, just a metallic connection where the tape would be.)

I pulled into the parking lot, a little early, pulled out the tape adapter, and looked at it. The hammer would not work for this fix.

Hmmm… a small, sharp implement might be able to wiggle the gears so that they are meshing exactly the way that tiny plastic gears are intended to.

I searched through my glove box, and found a pen. Too big.

At that moment, I saw the reflection off of the sock needle in my purse. PERFECT. With the tip of a size 1 ½ US needle, I wiggled and maneuvered the gear into place.

Step aside, hammer. A new era has begun.

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