The Helpless Helper

As a woman, I was pleased that when Mr. College watched the Bob the Builder show nearly two decades ago, there was a strong female character on the show. Wendy knew her stuff. Even sometimes when Bob didn't. They were a great team!

Not that I'm a wanna-be Wendy, but I did make the second hardware store trip in three days this evening. Like Wendy in this preschool book, I was just trying to help out!

Hubby has some banners he needs to hang for an event tomorrow. I knew he needed zip ties, so I looked for them at Wal-Mart yesterday. No luck. I offered to go to Ace Hardware after supper tonight since I wanted to grab some Watkins hand soap there that we use. Side note: They have a lot of cool, non-hardware stuff at our Ace!

So I went, donned my mask and started to look around. They have pretty complete lists of items on their signs at the end of each aisle. So I headed down on the right side. I almost asked a guy in a red shirt where they might be, but it turned out it was just a Badgers shirt – not an Ace red apron – so I kept moving.

Just like at Home Depot, when you wear a mask, it masks your confusion, so there were no red apron rescues. I got to the end, and simply came back on the other side, reading every item on every aisle sign. Finally, when I got back to the guy in red and his younger companion, I said, "I don't want to be the helpless female, but where would I find zip ties?"

I kid you not. The younger guy reaches 4 inches from me (on a center aisle display) and says: "You mean like these?"

And old guy quickly adds: "They're actually cable ties."

OK. Wendy would've known this. I was more upset that I was THAT close to not having a blond moment. So close.

I guess we'll need to add zip ties vs cable ties to the other Midwest arguments like soda vs pop, bubbler vs drinking fountain, crick vs creek, and barbecues vs sloppy joes!

As a bonus, I did find something at Ace that I was looking for at Home Depot Saturday. So when I need more, I can channel my inner Wendy and march straight to aisle 23 and get it!

Can we do it? Yes, we can!