Okay, a show of hands please. How man people would think to take a belt to the hardware store to be fixed? I've had two people this week bring men's belts into the store in search of a cure for what ailed them. In both cases the needed item was a teeny tiny screw. In that respect, guess the hardware store is the perfect place to go. Maybe the reason it seemed so odd to me is that I rarely buy belts, and when I do they are ones where the leather strap is riveted permanently to the buckle, so there are no screws to fall out. The two belts in this case, were the reversible type, brown on one side and black on the other. In order to reverse them, the buckle has to be disengaged and the strap turned over. Hence, a buckle with screw not rivets. I reject the concept of reversible belts, but that is a post for another day. One of the belts was brought in by an old couple. We get a lot of older customers trying to squeexe the last bit of life from something. Their belt appeared to be only slightly less old than they were. The old man kept telling his wife to just throw the damn thing away, but she was sure it could still be salvaged. And she proved to be right. For forty-two cents, it lived to serve another day. The second belt belonged to a well-dressed middle-aged guy and it appeared to be relatively expensive as men's belts go. I gave him a box of tiny screws and he fiddled with it at the service table until he triumphantly pronounced it fixed. I'm sure he will tell his friends about how he fixed his $50 belt for a mere thirty cents. So, I guess whether you need a light switch or a belt repair, the hardware store is a good choice. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky