Hammer, memories, son. + Martillo, recuerdos, hijo. [Eng+Spa]

A hammer. An old hammer, to a certain extent.

This hammer is connected to a particular memory, and today I remembered it by chance.

A little over two decades ago, my cousin asked me for help with some masonry repairs at his house. I'm not a professional bricklayer, but I've worked as a construction helper on other occasions. So, while I don't dare to take on large-scale jobs, I did dare to lend a hand with minor repairs.

The day I was going to my cousin's house, I noticed I had left the hammer at home. I had a bag of tools, and by the time I noticed the hammer was missing, I was several miles from home. I was traveling by bus, and I had to take several buses to get to my cousin's house.

At the busiest bus stop, I took the opportunity to look for a hammer. I was heading towards a hardware store, but I saw street vendors everywhere, and I took the opportunity to browse their wares. It just so happened that one of the street vendors was selling hammers.

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The price of this street vendor's hammers was cheap. That gave me the impression that it might be a “disposable tool”. You know, the kind of tool you use just a couple of times, and it disintegrates in your hands.

Anyway, I didn't expect the hammer to last long; I just thought I could buy a cheap hammer, and if it was broken by the end of the day, it wouldn't matter much. That hammer was so cheap that I was content with the idea of buying it, despite my initial bad impression.

That day I bought the Boxer hammer in the photo at the top of the post.

I took the next bus and arrived safely at my cousin's house. We were doing repairs on some walls in the house, and he wanted to get all the work done while his wife had gone for a prenatal checkup that day. It so happened that my cousin was expecting his first child, and the estimated due date was supposed to be in about a week.

We worked on the repairs, and everything was going quite well. We had to go out and buy some additional materials during the repairs, but it was at a hardware store near my cousin's house, so it didn't take long, and the work was progressing quite well.

I took advantage of the repairs to show my cousin how the work was done, so that in the future he could take care of these jobs at home himself.

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It was already afternoon when my cousin received a phone call with a surprise. His wife was already in labor. We looked at each other in surprise. He changed his clothes as quickly as he could. I gathered all the tools with the help of some other cousins, and then we rushed to the hospital to find out what had happened.

By that evening, when I had returned home, my cousin's son had been born.

I've always kept this hammer as a keepsake. And today I was surprised to remember that this tool has lasted quite a while (and I've used it quite a bit over the years). Considering how cheap I bought it, I was surprised it was as old as it is. I guess we were lucky with this purchase, or maybe the quality of this hammer is simply an example of “the exception that proves the rule.”

Versión en Inglés arriba

Image's Source - Fuente de la Imagen

El precio de los martillos de este vendedor callejero estaba barato. Eso me daba la impresión de que se podía tratar de una ‘herramienta desechable’. Ya sabes, es el tipo de herramienta que la usas apenas un par de veces y se te desintegra en las manos.

De todas maneras, yo no tenía expectativas de que el martillo durara mucho, simplemente pensé que podía comprar un martillo barato y si al final del día estaba estropeado, pues no importaba mucho. Así de barato resultaba ese martillo, que yo me conformé con la idea de comprarlo a pesar de la mala impresión inicial.

Ese día compré el martillo Boxer de la foto que encabeza el post.

Tomé el siguiente bus, y llegué sin problemas a la casa de mi primo. Estaban haciendo reparaciones en algunas paredes de la casa, y quería hacer todo el trabajo aprovechando que su esposa había ido al control prenatal ese día. Sucede que mi primo estaba esperando el nacimiento de su primer hijo, y se supone que la fecha estimada de nacimiento era para dentro de una semana aproximadamente.

Trabajamos en las reparaciones, y todo estaba yendo bastante bien. Nos tocó salir a comprar algunos materiales adicionales durante las reparaciones, pero fue en una ferretería cerca de la casa de mi primo, así que no tardamos mucho, y el trabajo avanzaba bastante bien.
Yo aprovechaba las reparaciones para mostrarle a mi primo como es que se hacía el trabajo, para que en un futuro se pudiera encargar él mismo de estos trabajos en casa.

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Ya estábamos en las horas de la tarde cuando llamaron por teléfono a mi primo con una sorpresa. Su esposa estaba ya en labor de parto. Nos vimos la cara con sorpresa, él se cambió de ropa lo más rápido que pudo, yo recogí todas las herramientas con ayuda de otros primos, y luego corrimos al hospital para saber qué había pasado.

Ya para esa noche, cuando yo había regresado a mi casa, el hijo de mi primo había nacido.

Siempre me quedó de recuerdo este martillo. Y hoy me sorprendí al recordar que ha durado bastante esta herramienta (y le he dado bastante uso con el paso de los años). Considerando lo barato que lo compré, me sorprendí de que tuviera la edad que tiene. Supongo que tuvimos suerte en esta compra, o puede que simplemente la calidad de este martillo sea un ejemplo de “la excepción que confirma la regla”.