A local resident described by his wife as “perfectly functional before 9am and usually fine until about lunchtime” returned from what was announced as a “quick trip” to Builders Suppliers some three hours and forty-seven minutes later, carrying items totalling R2 847 that he did not go in for and one item he did go in for but which turned out to be the wrong size, which he had not yet noticed.
He could not fully articulate what had happened inside the store, except to say that it had been “quite a journey” and that he now had “strong feelings about torque” and had “learned some things about himself.” His wife, who had originally sent him for a single rawl bolt, did not ask follow-up questions on the grounds that she “has done this before and knows how it goes.”
Among the items he returned with were a pipe lagging kit he described as “very useful when you think about it,” a cable management system for a home office he does not have, a drill bit set that duplicates two other drill bit sets he owns and a bag of gravel that he cannot explain but felt was “clearly necessary at the time.”
He spent the remainder of Saturday afternoon in the garage arranging the new items alongside the previous items, which produced no visible improvement to organisation but appeared to give him considerable satisfaction. He has since watched three YouTube videos about torque and considers the trip “productive overall.”
The rawl bolt was purchased from a smaller hardware store on Sunday. It cost R5.50. He was in and out in four minutes. He has not mentioned this to anyone.
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