Mitchguyver

Being a handy man/repair man/ contractor type guy; tools are pretty important to me. I think Ray Stevens says it best in his song Power Tools:

Well some folks say that grown up men are still jus' little boys,
and that really the only difference is the price of our toys.
We go for macho symbols, like guns and running shoes,
pickup trucks, huntin' ducks, and *vvrrmmm* power tools.

So with tools being so awesome and all the time I spend in a The Home Depot store picking up stuff for work I spend a bit of time admiring all the tools that I can't afford. (admiring should be understood somewhere in the neighborhood of not quite lusting or coveting because those are sins, but managing to keep the drool from running down my chin as I think of all I could do with those tools and a couple of free weekends.)
However I don't think Dave Ramsey or my wife would approve of me spending all the money I wish I could on tools. Since we have a baby on the way here and a car on the way out tools are lower down on the financial priority list. :( So I keep a keen eye open for deals on tools I think I would be most able to justify. Like when I got battery powered hedge trimmers, weed eater and a large capacity Li ion battery for about half the cost of the battery alone, I couldn't pass it up.

Likewise a few weeks ago when I saw I large cardboard cutout at the Country Club The Home Depot advertising a DeWalt tool giveaway on March 16 I knew no matter where I was working that day I would find my way to that store. A couple days later I saw the same cutout saying the store in Apache Junction was doing the same event on the 15.
SO on the 15th, Thursday, I walked into the AJ store to win me some tools. the contractor challenge turned out to be pretty simple. Drive 5 screws in a board. The daily winner of the 11 events in Arizona and New Mexico each would receive a new DeWalt 20v Max Lithium Ion impact driver, and the over all winner would receive a pallet of DeWalt tools worth $2012. All I had to do was start empty handed, with my drill hand hit the start button, pick up the drill and screws, drive 5 screws flush or deeper, put the drill down then with my drill hand hit the stop button. I totally fumbled my second screw and finished in 12.99 seconds. Which gave me the best time of the day. I even checked my standing on additional trips to that store since I had three jobs in the area that day. Until about half an hour before they packed up when some schmo did it in 12.49 seconds. Total heartbreak.

Friday I made my way to the country club The Home Depot, marched right up to the DeWalt promo stand yada yada yada. 11.80 seconds later I had the time to beat once again. I actually liked my chances in AJ better because the clients are a bit more geriatric and the country club store has a bunch of contractors and is super busy. So I crossed my fingers and waited.

I WON!!! That's right I now have a brand new toy valued over $200 and on the thirtieth will be able to try one more time to drive 5 screws faster than the other 10 event winners and haul home so many of those tools I have been covet... er admiring.