Better Today Than Tomorrow...

Off I go to clean up the last of the unfinished business from last week. First I have to stop at the one good hardware store left on the planet. Home Depot... a big, warehouse home improvement chain has put all the little neighborhood hardware stores out of business. So it can be difficult to find classic hardware. I'm looking for brass, #6, oval headed screws, 1 1/2 inch or longer. No where to be found... I'll settle for flat head, then. Home Depot only carries philips head screws of this sort and I don't think that they look right with antique fixtures. The problem with Home Depot is that they only stock the cheapest and most common sorts of hardware... they have their strengths but the uncommon is not one of them. In the old days (15 years ago?) every villiage in Newton (the town I was familiar with at the time) had it's own wonderful hardware store (iron mongers). Great places, with creaky, unfinished wooden floors, after looking around a bit you'd describe what you needed to a clerk, who would scratch his head and go downstairs to return with just the item... Or maybe I'm dreaming.
Anyway... on the way over to Swartzes, I noticed that the van was running hot. Not good. For the last couple of oil changes I'd been told the coolant was low but only had them top it off. I decided to go to the oil change place to have them look at it as I knew they'd do it right away (I was overdue for an oil change anyway). They decided that the radiator needed a good flushing and that did seem to cure the problem. Good, as I have to drive to Beacon, New York tomorrow to pick up artwork. I'd rescheduled the installation job, and instead got some paint and went out to Concord where the guys were finishing up this porch. Michael and I went off and did an estimate down the way for Meena, another client. I finished off the day, quite happily painting a pair of French doors. Oh, I tried to get a new pair of tires but was too late... they can do it early tomorrow before I head out.
I don't need all this just before I go on a holiday that I can't afford in the first place.