Murphy's World

My kingdom for a screwdriver

Dear Murphy,
I accidentally locked my key in the tractor. The tow company guy couldn’t get his tools into the brand new vehicle and was just about to give up. I borrowed his screwdriver and popped the sidebox open, climbed into the box (good thing that I’m still a medium build) and popped the latch on the bunk.
     After I got the door open, he looked me in the eye and said. “That’ll be a hundred bucks.”
     I broke into my own truck and he wants to charge me? Bah!
     Phantom
     Chino Valley, AZ

Dear Phantom,
I know what you’re thinking: A hundred bucks to borrow a screwdriver for three minutes to help you break into your own cab doesn’t seem like a bargain, but it could have been much worse. You may not remember this, but the late Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin each year used to present the “Golden Fleece Awards” for notable cases of government wasteful spending. In two of the more famous examples, Golden Fleece Awards were presented to the Pentagon procurement program for spending $400 for a hammer and $600 for a toilet seat.
     For the record, the $600 toilet seat was determined to be “fair and reasonable” by a Naval Contracting Officer, based on his “detailed knowledge of the manufacturing processes and degree of effort known to be required from the vendor to manufacture this item.” The jury is still out on the $400 hammer, but I understand it was one heckuva hammer.
     Is a screwdriver worth $100? Good question. If you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get going again is to use a screwdriver and you don’t have one and some guy in a tow truck drives all the way out there and hands you one, $100 might be the deal of the century.
     Of course, all of this could have been easily avoided if you had kept track of your key, but then we wouldn’t have this little slice of fun called Murphy’s World.

Regards,

Murphy and Lucky Dog