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So here's the deal... I go to Home Depot for longer eye bolts. We use live Christmas trees every year. This year we don't have our huge corner to put a huge tree in, so we got a smaller one. Our tree stand was too big for the small trunk of the tree, as the eye bolts didn't even touch the trunk when screwed all the way in.
So I'm at Home Depot looking for longer 5/16 - 18 eye bolts. The guy walks up and asks if he can help me.
I'm like "I'm just looking for a longer one of these," and flash my eye bolt at him.
He's like, "Oh," and then GETS IN MY WAY! Apparently a woman is incapable of finding the proper hardware she needs. Anyway, he looks around and says, "I don't think we even have one that long, much less longer."
I said, "I could just add more length, couldn't I?" At this point, I think dude cut his ears OFF! He starts coming up with all these really complicated solutions and ignores my really simple fix.
I'm finally like, "Dude, where's the nut connectors?"
He mumbles, "I'm not sure how that'll help," as he walks off. I follow him, ignoring his comment. He picks one up and says, "I suppose you could just put some super glue on the end of the bolt then screw this on and let it dry." I actually have to close my eyes so the guy can't see them rolling. I just walk back over to the loose hardware. I locate a 5/16 - 18 X 1 hex bolt. (For those unfamiliar with it, "5/16 - 18 X 1 hex bolt" means a flat-ended screw that is 5/16 of an inch in diameter with 18 threads in an inch, is one inch long, and has a six-sided head on the top.) I screw it all together, connecting the eye bolt and the hex bolt with the connector. By now, dude's looking over my shoulder. So just to prove to Mr. Man Card that women CAN do mechanically inclined stuff, I show him what I had been trying to tell him from the beginning.
The dude is trying to find a flaw, I'm sure of it. He finally says it might not stay. O_o They practically lock when the two ends meet inside in the connector, so how exactly is it not going to stay? I just thank him (I was being polite.), gather the number of bolts I need (Since the package of connectors he handed me had enough in it already, I didn't need to get any more of those.), and walk off.
Amazingly (or not so much since I knew it would work considering I was an engineering student for a while), it worked perfectly to extend the length of the bolts long enough to hold my tree in the stand.
(Okay, so we might have used more adult-like vocabulary and the conversation a bit longer, but this is my ranting "voice.")
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It REALLY irritates me when I go to the home improvement stores and am treated like my vagina takes away my ability to think mechanically!! During my days in nursing classes, I somehow failed to learn that estrogen lowers your IQ. (I did learn in my nursing classes, however, that the dick has NO brain tissue in it, so it simply CANNOT make a person smarter!) I honestly think that the "masculine" men that work at places like Home Depot and Lowes don't like to have their man card taken by a woman. The problem, though, lies in that I'm NOT trying to take their man card; I'm content with two different genders working together AS EQUALS to solve a mechanical problem. I've never looked down on men working in women's fields, like nursing or bakers/cake decorators! I shouldn't be looked down upon for doing "man" things!
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Author's Note: Before I start being accused of misandry or sexism, let it be known that I have no issue with males at all. While men are generally more mechanically inclined than women (because the part of the brain that thinks spacially is generally more active in men), that doesn't mean that women are incapable of being adept at such things. And it also works the other way; for an example, just because women are generally more creative and verbal (because the corpus callosum is generally larger and the language centers are generally more active in females) doesn't mean that men are incapable of being articulate. For fuck's sake, look at my idols, Frank Iero and (particularly) Gerard Way; both of them are males and are QUITE adept with words!
Both sexes have their strong points as a whole, but that doesn't mean EVERY person conforms to these stereotypes! Each person, regardless of the sexual organ between the legs, is unique and thinks in his/her own way, therefore meaning that women can be spatial thinkers and men can be creative and eloquent. (But that just brings up other stereotypes, like the "flamboyant male" or "butch female" that is usually thought to be gay, which is another sore spot of mine that I shan't start now... long and short: just because a male is feminine or a female masculine doesn't mean a damn fucking thing--pun intended!!)