I think rulers must multiply when you're not looking.
I just realized that I have seven rulers in my desk. Four stainless steel and three drafting rulers. And I don't know why I have so many.
I also have a box in the garage that probably has another eight wooden rulers. What on earth am I thinking of, saving, and presumably buying, so many rulers?
I think one or two of the wooden ones are promotional items, so they are pretty cool to have since the businesses don't exist any more. I know one was my grandfather's, so I at least have a connection to that one.
The drafting rulers are a bit trickier. They were probably either my dad's or my brother's. Most likely my dad's. English and metric, one is even made out of pearwood.
My dad wasn't an architect, or a draftsman, but he spent his life always learning about things. And doing things as well. He renovated a few homes we lived in, and built a few more. I do remember him doing some drawings at the kitchen table - I wish I still had some of those drawings. But, they were temporary, just a way to visualize a project he was working on, or thinking about. They also served the purpose of communicating his ideas in a very clear fashion. I wonder what his rulers would say if I were able to ask them about the work they've been involved with.
The stainless steel rulers are harder to remember where they came from. They are newer, and each is marked in both english and metric. One is cool though - it's for office use and has holes punched into it to measure punch hole sizes, plus a scale down one size to count lines of type. Things that used to be important in handling paperwork in an office before computers. Although I feel that computers in offices mean more paper is used, not less.
I should clean out the older rulers and only keep a few. Then I can start adding up tape measures.
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