The Hardware Store (Encore)

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Speaker 1 Welcome to bedtime stories for everyone,

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good,

Speaker 1 and then

Speaker 1 you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittersheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family-friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Now, let me explain how to use this podcast.

Speaker 1 When left to its own devices,

Speaker 1 your mind will wander endlessly, rehashing and what ifing into the wee hours.

Speaker 1 We need to give it a soft place to land.

Speaker 1 That's what the story is.

Speaker 1 And once the mind settles, your nervous system can switch over

Speaker 1 into rest and digest mode.

Speaker 1 And you'll sleep.

Speaker 1 All you need to do is follow along with the sound of my voice and the simple shape of the story.

Speaker 1 I'll read the story twice, and I'll go a little slower the second time through.

Speaker 1 If you find yourself awake in the middle of the night,

Speaker 1 you could listen again,

Speaker 1 or just think your way back through any part of the story that you can remember,

Speaker 1 especially any detail detail that felt particularly cozy to you.

Speaker 1 It'll reroute your mind back to the landing spot.

Speaker 1 And before you know it, you'll be waking up tomorrow,

Speaker 1 feeling refreshed and rested.

Speaker 1 Our story this week is called The Hardware Store.

Speaker 1 And it's a story about finding all the right things for a few projects at home.

Speaker 1 It's also about stacks of fresh sawn wood, a packet of peanut buttercups, and the ride home with the window down.

Speaker 1 I was a full-time yoga teacher for over 20 years,

Speaker 1 and I know the power of intentional breathing.

Speaker 1 It's why our two deep breaths have been part of our bedtime routine since episode one.

Speaker 1 And that's why I want to introduce you to Moonbird.

Speaker 1 Moonbird is a handheld breathing device designed to comfortably fit in the palm of your hand. When you shake it, it will start inflating and deflating.

Speaker 1 So in your hand, it will feel like you're holding a little bird that is breathing in

Speaker 1 and out.

Speaker 1 The only thing you need to do is breathe along with it. When Moonbird inflates, you breathe in.

Speaker 1 When Moonbird deflates, you breathe out. Simple, intuitive, and takes all the effort and thinking out of your breathing exercises.

Speaker 1 It's the perfect companion to your bedtime ritual. Or use it when you're meditating, when you're stuck in traffic.
Anytime you need an assist in feeling calm and focused.

Speaker 1 Listen, I know how to breathe to feel better, but still I use Moonbird. Because when my mind is racing or wandering, I need a little guidance and it makes my deep breathing more effective.

Speaker 1 So when you wake in the middle of the night, don't reach for your phone unless it's to restart your bedtime story. That's fine.

Speaker 1 Reach for Moonbird. Visit moonbird.life slash nothing much happens to save 20%.

Speaker 1 We've got it linked in our show notes.

Speaker 1 It's time to turn off the light.

Speaker 1 Set aside anything you've been working on or looking at.

Speaker 1 Snuggle down into your sheets

Speaker 1 and get as comfortable as you can.

Speaker 1 You are about to fall asleep

Speaker 1 and you'll sleep deeply all night.

Speaker 1 Take a slow breath in through your nose

Speaker 1 and sigh it out of your mouth.

Speaker 1 Again, breathe in

Speaker 1 and out.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 The hardware store

Speaker 1 The gate into the back garden was squeaking on its hinges.

Speaker 1 I'd noticed it to day when I pushed through it with my dogs at my heels

Speaker 1 on our way to the vegetable patch.

Speaker 1 I stopped for a moment, working the gate back and forth on its hinges, to see if a little bit of movement would clear the stickiness out.

Speaker 1 After all, that usually works for me.

Speaker 1 The gate was a lovely, smooth piece of walnut.

Speaker 1 I'd planed it myself and hung it with wrought iron fittings that latched smoothly into place.

Speaker 1 The squeak persisted.

Speaker 1 It would need a bit of oil, and today seemed a good day to tend to it.

Speaker 1 I had a little list of projects, and I added the gate to it.

Speaker 1 There was the slow drip from the kitchen faucet,

Speaker 1 the slightly crooked shelf in the closet, that just needed a shim to even it out,

Speaker 1 and the split in the leg of one of the kitchen chairs, that could be set right with a bit of wood glue.

Speaker 1 I scratched out a list of needful things with paper and pencil

Speaker 1 and grabbed my car keys from the counter.

Speaker 1 I was headed to the hardware store.

Speaker 1 Hardware stores are long places, with shelves reaching back for miles,

Speaker 1 and that unmistakable smell

Speaker 1 that somehow manages to be on the clean side of dusty.

Speaker 1 All hardware stores have it.

Speaker 1 They are almost always dark and cool,

Speaker 1 even on the hottest days.

Speaker 1 And for those who like to build and mend

Speaker 1 and take things things apart just to put them back together.

Speaker 1 They are as much a place to meet and discuss

Speaker 1 as they are to shop and to buy.

Speaker 1 In fact, there was a small group of people standing in a loose circle at the front door, sipping coffee from paper cups,

Speaker 1 and talking about which tools were the best for a particular job.

Speaker 1 I smiled as I walked past them, eavesdropping on their strong opinions.

Speaker 1 It reminded me of folks who live in big cities,

Speaker 1 who like to debate the best way to get from one side of town to another,

Speaker 1 which subway, or bus,

Speaker 1 or secret one-way street to turn down.

Speaker 1 We,

Speaker 1 each of us, like to be the masters of some particular thing or other.

Speaker 1 It keeps us learning.

Speaker 1 I took my list from my pocket

Speaker 1 and ran my finger down the items.

Speaker 1 I needed oil for the gate,

Speaker 1 glue and shims, and a few odds and ends.

Speaker 1 I wandered up and down the aisles.

Speaker 1 I liked looking at the boxes and boxes of screws and bolts and fittings lined up neatly,

Speaker 1 each one made precisely to be just the same as its fellows,

Speaker 1 and just one size up or down from its neighbors on either side.

Speaker 1 I passed some time picking through some woodworking tools, working out for myself how they were used, and deciding if I should add them to my collection.

Speaker 1 In the back of the store were tall stacks of freshly cut wood that had its own lovely, warm smell.

Speaker 1 There were shavings and sawdust on the floor,

Speaker 1 and it made me eager to make something in my workshop at home.

Speaker 1 I pushed through the swinging doors that led out to the garden center.

Speaker 1 The air was suddenly warm and a little thick,

Speaker 1 smelling sweetly of flowers and soil and mulch.

Speaker 1 There were more long rows to stroll through.

Speaker 1 These were made of stacks of cinder blocks and plywood,

Speaker 1 every inch covered covered in flats of perennials and annuals and pots of herbs.

Speaker 1 There was a huge, healthy, split-leaf philodendron

Speaker 1 who had just unfurled a brand new, waxy pale green leaf into the world.

Speaker 1 I stopped to touch the new leaf,

Speaker 1 to marvel at the veins and the softness.

Speaker 1 When it comes down to it, actually hugging a tree

Speaker 1 is usually a scratchy, unpleasant experience.

Speaker 1 But reaching out to touch a leaf, or petal,

Speaker 1 or to lay an open hand on bark, or fruit,

Speaker 1 it feels very much like saying hello.

Speaker 1 There were tall fiddle figs and spiky arborvites

Speaker 1 and a sea of purple phlocks.

Speaker 1 Have you ever noticed how lovely plant names are?

Speaker 1 Rhododendron and Forsythia,

Speaker 1 Wisteria and creeping clematis,

Speaker 1 primrose and aster and coleus and common Purs Lane.

Speaker 1 My arms were filling up,

Speaker 1 and soon I turned back into the shop and headed to the counter,

Speaker 1 with everything I needed, and a few things that I didn't, but was getting anyway.

Speaker 1 The man behind the register had owned this store as far back as I could remember, and he'd often helped me work out a plan for whatever project I had in mind.

Speaker 1 He laid everything from my basket out on the counter and had a good look at it all before he began to ring it up.

Speaker 1 You've got something loose,

Speaker 1 something squeaky, and something crooked. Am I right?

Speaker 1 We always played this game.

Speaker 1 Don't we all? I said with a laugh.

Speaker 1 Right enough, he agreed.

Speaker 1 As he packed my purchases into deep paper sacks, I squatted down to look at the shelves of candy bars and packets of gum and mints.

Speaker 1 Hardware stores always have lots and lots of candy to fortify you after all your hard work with something sweet.

Speaker 1 I added a pack of peanut butter cups to the counter,

Speaker 1 and paid for it all and carried my sacks out to the car.

Speaker 1 On the drive home, I rolled the windows down, and let the fresh summer air in.

Speaker 1 I ate my peanut butter cups and sang along to the music,

Speaker 1 and thought about my list of projects and where to start.

Speaker 1 I'd fix that slanting shelf,

Speaker 1 then move into the kitchen to tighten the faucet and glue the chair leg.

Speaker 1 I'd oil the hinges on my gate

Speaker 1 and lay out my new tools in the workshop.

Speaker 1 I could take the dogs to search through the trails at the park for a good-sized piece of wood,

Speaker 1 a thick branch lately fallen from a tree, that I could put on my lathe to turn and turn

Speaker 1 and turn into something.

Speaker 1 That was the promise of making and fixing on hardware stores.

Speaker 1 From the waxy new leaves to the freshly sawn planks of wood

Speaker 1 and the nails to hold them all together.

Speaker 1 It was the best parts of discovery and purpose and usefulness.

Speaker 1 The hardware store.

Speaker 1 The gate into the back garden was squeaking on its hinges.

Speaker 1 I'd noticed it today

Speaker 1 when I pushed through it with my dogs at my heels on our way to the vegetable patch.

Speaker 1 I stopped for a moment,

Speaker 1 working the gate back and forth on the hinges

Speaker 1 to see if a little bit of movement would clear the stickiness out.

Speaker 1 After all,

Speaker 1 that usually works for me.

Speaker 1 The gate was a lovely, smooth piece of walnut.

Speaker 1 I'd planed it myself

Speaker 1 and hung it with wrought iron fittings

Speaker 1 that latched smoothly into place.

Speaker 1 The squeak persisted.

Speaker 1 It would need a bit of oil,

Speaker 1 and today seemed a good day to tend to it.

Speaker 1 I had a little list of projects,

Speaker 1 and I added the gate to it.

Speaker 1 There was the slow drip from the kitchen faucet,

Speaker 1 the slightly crooked shelf in the closet that just needed a shim to even it out,

Speaker 1 and the split in the leg of one of the kitchen chairs that could be set right with a bit of wood glue.

Speaker 1 I scratched out a list of needful things with paper and pencil

Speaker 1 and grabbed my car keys from the counter.

Speaker 1 I was headed to the hardware store.

Speaker 1 Hardware stores are long places

Speaker 1 with shelves reaching back for miles

Speaker 1 and that unmistakable smell

Speaker 1 that somehow manages to be on the clean side of dusty.

Speaker 1 All hardware stores have it.

Speaker 1 They are almost always dark and cool,

Speaker 1 even on the hottest days of the year.

Speaker 1 And for those who like to build and mend

Speaker 1 and take things apart just to put them back together,

Speaker 1 they are as much a place to meet and discuss

Speaker 1 as they are to shop and to buy.

Speaker 1 In fact,

Speaker 1 there was a small group of people

Speaker 1 standing in a loose circle at the front door,

Speaker 1 sipping coffee from paper cups,

Speaker 1 and talking about which tools were the best for a particular job.

Speaker 1 I smiled as I walked past them,

Speaker 1 eavesdropping on their strong opinions.

Speaker 1 It reminded me of folks who live in big cities,

Speaker 1 who like to debate on the best way to get from one side of town to another

Speaker 1 Which subway or bus or secret one way street to turn down

Speaker 1 We,

Speaker 1 each of us,

Speaker 1 likes to be the master of some particular thing or other.

Speaker 1 It keeps us learning.

Speaker 1 I took my list from my pocket

Speaker 1 and ran my finger down the items.

Speaker 1 I needed oil for the gate,

Speaker 1 glue and shims, and a few odds and ends.

Speaker 1 I wandered up and down the aisles.

Speaker 1 I liked looking at the boxes and boxes of screws and bolts and fittings

Speaker 1 lined up neatly,

Speaker 1 each one made precisely to be just the same as its fellows,

Speaker 1 and just one size up or down from its neighbors on either side.

Speaker 1 I passed some time

Speaker 1 picking through some woodworking tools,

Speaker 1 working out for myself

Speaker 1 how they were used,

Speaker 1 and deciding if I should add them to my collection.

Speaker 1 In the back of the store were tall stacks of freshly cut wood that had its own lovely warm smell.

Speaker 1 There were shavings and sawdust on the floor,

Speaker 1 and it made me eager to make something in my workshop at home.

Speaker 1 I pushed through the swinging doors that led out to the garden centre.

Speaker 1 The air was suddenly warm

Speaker 1 and a little thick,

Speaker 1 smelling sweetly of flowers and soil and mulch.

Speaker 1 There were long rows to stroll through.

Speaker 1 These were made of stacks of cinder blocks and plywood.

Speaker 1 Every inch covered in flats of perennials and annuals and pots of herbs.

Speaker 1 There was a huge split leaf philodendron

Speaker 1 who had just unfurled a brand new waxy pale green leaf into the world.

Speaker 1 I stopped to touch the new leaf

Speaker 1 to marvel at the veins and the softness

Speaker 1 when it comes down to it.

Speaker 1 Actually hugging a tree is usually a scratchy, unpleasant experience.

Speaker 1 But reaching out to touch a leaf or petal

Speaker 1 or to lay an open hand on bark or fruit,

Speaker 1 it feels very much like saying hello.

Speaker 1 There were tall fiddle figs, and spiky arborvites,

Speaker 1 and a sea of purple phlocks.

Speaker 1 Have you ever noticed how lovely plant names are

Speaker 1 rhododendron and forsythia,

Speaker 1 wisteria and creeping clematis,

Speaker 1 primrose and aster and coleus and common purslane.

Speaker 1 My arms were filling up,

Speaker 1 and soon I turned back into the shop and headed to the counter with everything I needed, and a few things that I didn't, but was getting anyway.

Speaker 1 The man behind the register had owned this store as far back as I could remember,

Speaker 1 and he'd often helped me work out a plan for whatever project I had in mind.

Speaker 1 He laid everything from my basket out onto the counter, and had a good look at it all before he began to ring it up.

Speaker 1 You've got something loose,

Speaker 1 something squeaky,

Speaker 1 and something crooked.

Speaker 1 Am I right?

Speaker 1 We always played this game.

Speaker 1 Don't we all? I said with a laugh.

Speaker 1 Right enough, he agreed.

Speaker 1 As he packed my purchases into deep paper sacks,

Speaker 1 I squatted down to look at the shelves of candy bars

Speaker 1 and the packets of gum and mints.

Speaker 1 Hardware stores always have lots and lots of candy to fortify you after all your hard work with something sweet.

Speaker 1 I added a pack of peanut butter cups to the counter and paid for it all

Speaker 1 and carried my sacks out to the car.

Speaker 1 On the drive home, I rolled the windows down and let the fresh summer air in.

Speaker 1 I ate my peanut buttercups and sang along to the music

Speaker 1 and thought about my list of projects

Speaker 1 and where to start.

Speaker 1 I'd fix that slanting shelf,

Speaker 1 then move into the kitchen to tighten the faucet and glue the chair leg.

Speaker 1 I'd oil the hinges on my gate and lay out my new tools in the workshop.

Speaker 1 I could take the dogs to search through the trails at the park for a good-sized piece of wood,

Speaker 1 a thick branch lately fallen from a tree,

Speaker 1 that I could put on my lathe to turn and turn and turn into something.

Speaker 1 That was the promise of making

Speaker 1 and fixing

Speaker 1 and hardware stores,

Speaker 1 from the waxy new leaves

Speaker 1 to the freshly sawn planks of wood,

Speaker 1 and the nails to hold them together.

Speaker 1 It was the best parts of discovery

Speaker 1 and purpose

Speaker 1 and usefulness.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.