Hoagy Carmichael ?

" the falling leaves, drift by my window " I think these are HC. What is the reference ? I'm watching the leaves fall, a little but enough.

Alright - tools.

From the time that I was about 18 y.o., my Dad started giving me tools as presents. Sam encouraged us to learn to do odd jobs around the house. Especially, his house.
The upshot, I collect tools - my brother blew him off.
There is a store / company called Lee Valley.
LV makes and imports good quality tools for all uses around the home and garden.
These tools are excellent gifts if your trying to buy for me, as M does. Each year , she gets a wish list filled out in the LV mail order form that comes w/ issues of their catalogue ( 4 or so per year ).
I once did a tally as I scanned a catalogue.
The list filled two pages.
Now, using these tools. Honestly, there are 2 or 3 items that are still in their wrappers.
Some tools got used once and sit somewhere.
Others, are phenomenal aids as I go about 'fitzing ' around the house. No its not a misspell. Thats what I call my work,          ' fitzing ' around the house. To call it carpentry or any term that denotes compentance would be fallacious.

What  I do best is ' organize ' my tools. Can I find anything, occassionally. I sharpen all the bladed tools and put everything in boxes or cases. See. Organize.
The greatest buys at LV.
A squeeze drive, screwdriver. Its a gun w/ interchangeable bits and reverse drive. You squeeze the trigger and the bit turns. The gun is a ratchet as well. B/c you're holding a gun shaped instrument, its a lot easier to turn a tight screw. This means that I can drill a starter hole and insert a screw part way and then drive the screw  w/ the drill later. W/out constantly changing the bit on the drill.

A little careless, I wrenched the trigger and the trigger went cock-eyed and wouldn't go back. Sheepishly, I returned to LV and said that I'd twisted the trigger out of shape and was it possible to repair the 'squeeze-gun'.
The LV agent took away my defective gun and returned w/ a new one and said " fixed ".
Thats their customer service.

Window washing. We have several windows at second floor level from the basement walk-out. LV sells a Mallory Co. window washing set w/ telescoping handle good to 20 feet.
I can do the high windows in 10 - 15 minutes and no climbing.
Next door's wife saw me do the windows and asked to borrow the equipment. Her husband said where did you learn to do that, b/c it was so fast. Huh, me of course.

Blades. I collect or hoard all kinds. Knives , axes and anything sharp. Fascinating in that after a while you can see a special use for each tool and how important it is to have the proper intsrument for each job.

The most useful blade.
I have two Lagouile folding pocket knives. The area in France around the 2 cites of Lagouile and Thiers, are famous for steel and hand-crafted blades.
The competeing cities both claim the right to make the Lagouile knife. The knives are high quality steel, rockwell hardness 57 - 59, and fine instruments.
These knives are trademarked with a ladderback finish on the top edge of the blade. A ' bee ' symbol is found close to the handle on the top edge.

A non - LV blade, is a sheath knife that I bought when I was 16 y.o., approx ten yrs ago. The steel is Swedish made by Mora Co.,  well known steelmaker.
I tried shaving w/ the Mora once as you see in movies, heck, you can hardly notice the scar, now.

When my father down-sized about 12 years ago, I inherited / seized all his tools that he didn't put aside. My ' collection ' doubled. Seems Sam held onto blades, too. Its all genetic.
Problem was, my Dad was a blue-print carpenter and builder, no ' fitzing ' there.

Ah, I live in my father's shadow. But I sharpen tools better than he did.

Another LV buy was a vertical belt sander. The belts come in different fineness of grit.
The 10 micron belt can hone an edge on most blades w/out stripping or over-heating the blade. So, the blades are sharp but lonely in their racks.

Long live Lee Valley - yes, along with the Tractor store and Costco, there is Lee Valley ' amusement park ' for men.