It’s just a set of wire strippers at the end of the day, admittedly rather bad-ass wire strippers as wire strippers go. But they also represent to me taking another step back from the low point 7 years ago when I lost everything and my mind imploded.

When I lost the house and as part of my downsizing process almost everything I owned got thrown away or passed on to others. At times it felt like vultures were circling me ready to pick over the bones of my life. Part of that downsizing included almost all of my tools going. I didn’t have many tools but I had enough to carry out small repairs, do a bit of wiring, a bit of soldering, change a plug and odd little jobs around my home and the odd bit radio related stuff. I missed my tools!

This year when I bought a new TV for the living room the man who came to install it accidently left his flathead screwdriver. It was nothing special but it was quite nice and it prompted me to start rebuilding a new toolkit. I’ve been putting together a selection of good quality hand tools to allow me to carry out the sort of jobs I did way back in time in my old house. Yesterday Amazon dropped off the above set of wire strippers for me and I rather like them.

Putting the tool kit together doesn’t change the world or make everything better but it represents for me another tiny step away from the lowest point in my life. Now, when I need to do a repair of any other small job I can sit at my desk, reach down, take my tool kit out an carry out the work myself without having to involve others.