Brass Tacks, and Windshield Cracks…

Does anyone else have a person in their lives that, for what ever reason always uses phrases that make you go..huh?  Either its a saying that you just aren’t that familiar with, or maybe one that is a little out dated, and makes you wonder what it even means.  For me that person was always my Daddy.  He just had a way of talking, and sometimes non verbally communicating, that was much different than everyone else.  Something I remember him saying, that I actually have had wrong all this time was- “To get down to brass tacks.”  It normally came when he was signalling that the argument was over, and that he was making his final statement.  The saying itself dates back to the early 19th Century, and it means to get to the essentials, or the basic facts.  My entire life, I thought it was brass tax, and during a conversation with my Favorite Handy Fellow; I stood corrected.  We realized, in that conversation and the subsequent Google session, that he is now that person.  He says things like “Down the rabbit hole” and “Right as rain”.  There is just something about a perfectly placed saying, that really works.  I started thinking about it more and I have to give myself a little credit for actually knowing more old sayings than I thought.

The way that the English language in general has changed over the years is really something to marvel at.  If you turn the word marvel on its head and sideways.  It hurts my feelings that there are people that actually use “ur” instead of knowing the correct forms of you’re and your.  I too am guilty of using slang and will pepper my sentences with things like rad, dope, redic and hilar.  It’s not that I don’t know the correct way to speak, of course.  I have just adopted my own way of talking , that makes me like no one else as well.  Myself and the Handy Fellow have something of a short hand that consists of these wayward phrases, sarcasm, movie quotes, song lyrics, and inside jokes.  It may say something about ones character if they are able to pull off having their own vernacular, and even have it mirrored back to them by others.  Hang out with me long enough, and you will def pick up some of my terms!

While thinking about some of the fun things that I say..one of them is not, nor will it ever be; I have a crack in my windshield.  For those of you that have been following the saga of the Doozer Mobile; I had hit a pole, and then got the damage fixed.  Then my AC wasn’t blowing cold air, the horn was hella quiet (it was meep instead of MEEP) , and then I got a nail in my rear passenger tire.  I spent far too much time in the Ford Dealership, and also on the phone with them.  I may or may not have had to get down to brass tacks a few times with them.  I finally got all the issues taken care of, and I was super happy.  Not even a week later, I come out of my apartment to go to work…and there is a crack in my windshield.  It’s not a little baby crack either.  It starts at the bottom in the right and curves up and around in the middle.  While there are some people I know that will drive around with a crack in their windshield, I am not that person. I did find out, that in Florida you can get it replaced for free as long as you have insurance.  So this is good news right? Wrong.  Because also quickly approaching Florida was someone called Irma..and no, not as in ERMAHGERD.  Hurricane Irma was headed seemingly straight for us, and I had to work.  So I have been living with this crack in my car as long as I have to, and hoping that it is a quick recovery for the Doozer Mobile as soon as the weather passes.

I was wondering what some of the phrases ya’ll will think of are while reading this and smile to yourselves?  It also dawned on me that I was using a phrase like “right as rain” with a hurricane that was possibly a category 5 looming, but i digress.  Thank ya’ll once again, as always, for following me down the rabbit hole. XOXO