#509 – Stick It

If you're a regular reader, you'll remember Maarten Meerman. He's the one who came up with this brilliant jewelry trick and who made this delightful device, which keeps Holly, and subsequently me, happy.

Several years ago, he noticed that I had trouble getting up out of the swinging chair that was on their deck. I couldn't resist sitting on it, even though I knew I would have trouble getting out of it. Always solution-oriented, he presented me with this lovely walking stick which can be used on walks and hikes.

As a bonus, it can also be used as a gardening aid to keep you steady as you plant those bulbs! As he says:

"The stick has markings on it to help measure plant height, seed and planting distance, and you can lean on it while reaching over to pick some flowers. And it will keep some wildlife away if you swing it wildly enough!"

Don't you just love things that have more than one use?

For those who like to know the provenance of things, here is more from Maarten:

"The stick is maple, an off-cut plank I got from a woodturner in Langley. The plank was fairly long and wide, so I managed to make two out of it. The twin of the one you have lives in Sechelt these days, supporting a retired police dispatcher.

The tip is a spare bolt from the set that was used to bolt a satellite to a launch vehicle. There are always some spares, as you cannot just drop by the store at the launch site in Baikonur, for example, if you find one missing, and they have to be a specific quality, be tested, etc. Once the satellite is launched, some of the spares are no longer kept as they are specific to that satellite. The bolt used in the stick is M6, hexagonal head, A316 stainless steel, if I remember correctly, but now the head is ground off to be round."

4 Replies to “#509 – Stick It”

  1. I think I could watch the ball launcher for hours. It reminds me of my mom and dad’s house as a young man. The pup loved chasing balls. I would toss it and the up would wait for it to go the bottom of the hill and she would take off and usually run into the garage before she could get stopped. I can still see her doing it 35 years later. Mom sitting in a wheelchair and nearly blind would laugh as the puppy would do circles waiting fo the ball to launch.

      1. She was mostly a mutt, but with a terroir lineage, My mom loved her like no other. Her name was Delilah. As an only child I thought I was moms favorite,,, psst I was second at best.

        On her death bed in a psychological quagmire my mom called her pups name and was caressing her imaginary body as she passed. Mom was only 46 and she suffered many complications of diabetes.

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