A Hat, an Umbrella, and a Hammer

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It has been raining pretty much daily over the last week. In fact, every day up until today was wet. Not hot and wet or cold and wet, though — a nice enough temperature between those two that made it tolerable.
This summer so far has been the summer of the hat, and now it’s turning in to the summer of the umbrella. I have a Tilley hat, and it has served me well in the year and change since I bought it. Cutting grass, walking all over Disney World, building stuff. It keeps the sun off my face and neck, and it’s very comfortable. It’s become one of those things that goes everywhere — and the pocket inside makes for a nice bit of backup storage.
But lately, every trip also involves the umbrella. So I went and purchased a big one, big enough so that the wife and I can comfortably walk under it.
It has come in handy, just like the hat.
It’s these two surprisingly simple additions to my daily routine that make me wonder what else I could use, but don’t know it yet. As a cigar smoker I’m always prepared to make fire with a lighter, so if the day ever comes where all else fails…
I’ve been carrying a notebook and pen (or pencil, depending on my frame of mind) around for as long as I can remember… and with the voice recorder on my phone, I’ve got two ways to keep thoughts if they occur to me and I’m afraid of losing them. I also carry around a pocket knife, because… well, everyone should have a knife.
This got me thinking about Every Day Carry. The site has a lot of interesting combinations but I haven’t been looking at it in a while. I’ve used some ideas from others on that site, though — a flash light is a part of my daily carry now, for example — and I wish they’d update more frequently.
One surprisingly useful and lightweight addition is the handkerchief. Who doesn’t, on occasion, need to wipe something up?
Everything should have a purpose and everything should be good at that purpose. A phone that doesn’t make calls isn’t a very good phone, and a knife that can’t cut is just a bit of scrap metal. If I needed to add more tools to my carry, some sort of Leatherman would certainly do the task. Unless I needed to nail something into place… Which…
… In Lowes the other day (I think; we were in a lot of Home Improvement Type Stores, or HITS because that sounds cool), I saw a miniature hammer. It was basically made to be held by one hand and while I wouldn’t want to use it for any extended period of time, that thing looked like a great addition to an Every Day Car Carry type bundle (which I’m still working on).
One thing those EDCers get right: Paracord. There are many times when I need to secure something, and duct tape* just doesn’t do it — it needs to be tied (and possibly duct taped after the fact). Paracord is a great go-to for that.
* I have a good bit of duct tape in my bag wrapped around a marker. I got the idea from somewhere on the internet and it has actually come in handy and is much smaller than a straight up roll of duct tape!