my dad bought me a brand new retractable tape measure despite me telling him i didn’t want a new one because he doesn’t like the one i use. says it’s old and barely retracts anymore and he’s afraid i’ll cut a finger on it but also.
he gave it to me absentmindedly one day years ago when i needed one in college and said, “take this one, it was my dad’s” and so this tape measure may be less “retractable” than most and really rough to use and probably a hazard and i think also made by a power tool company that went bankrupt decades ago but also
it’s the same tape measure my grandfather used to have clipped onto his belt loop when he let me rest my head on his lap and fall asleep during family reunions and it’s the same tape measure my grandfather used when he was building my dad a shoe cubby in our home and it’s the same tape measure my grandfather used to measure my height when i was eight years old and insisting i was taller than my cousin so like
i thanked my dad profusely for the brand new shiny and actually-retractable tape measure he bought me, but he doesn’t need to know i’m gonna go ahead and keep using the other one, the one if i hold long enough, i can kind of remember for a second what my grandfather’s laugh used to sound like