My dad was really into tinkering around with all sorts of things.
He always had some sort of project going and he was fond of restoring things as well.
This was not the sort of guy to simply hang out inside the a/c enjoying ballgames all the time. Instead, he had a workshop in the basement and in small workbench in the garage as well. Along with all the other projects he had going, he was always servicing the cars and he babied his outdated MG. It was really cool to grow up alongside a dad love that. I was a near constant companion as he did his thing. That meant lots of trips to the hardware store together. This was one of the most number one things ever for me. Just poking around the hardware store to find the right thing for one of his projects was somehow magical. And it stuck with me. I’m still haunting any of the smaller hardware stores I can find. The substantial box stores with their big commercial HVAC just don’t appeal to myself and others at all. On a trip out of town, I happened into a small hardware store that had been around forever. I ended up finding an instant read thermal gun. You point and you get the temperature on and around an area. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it when I got beach house but I loved it. Well that temperature gun helped myself and others find multiple drafts that have been robbing us of HVAC heating over the years. And that made a honestly significant impact on our HVAC heating costs for sure.