Shoutout to the old guy at the hardware store who showed me how to fix a squeaky stair

I went to Ace Hardware over on 12th Street today just to grab a can of WD-40 for my stairs. This older dude stocking shelves saw me and asked what I was fixing. I told him about the squeak on the third step and he laughed, said WD-40 won't do squat for wood-on-wood. He walked me over to the lumber aisle and showed me a pack of shims for $3.49. Told me to tap one between the tread and the riser from underneath. I got home, tried it on that one step, and in under 5 minutes the squeak was gone. Has anyone else had a random stranger at a store just save you a bunch of time like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_perez521mo ago

That part about the WD-40 not doing squat for wood-on-wood really got me. I had a similar thing happen at a bookstore once. I was complaining to nobody about a weird noise my car was making, some grinding sound from the back wheel. A random guy in the history section overheard me and said it was probably a dust shield rubbing against the rotor. He drew me a little diagram on a napkin. I got home, bent that shield back with a screwdriver, and the noise was gone. Never would have figured that out on my own. You just never know who's got that random specific knowledge floating around in their head.

veramartin1mo ago

Man, that napkin diagram bit is gold. It's wild how some people just carry around random expertise they'll never use until a stranger needs it. Makes you wonder what kind of genius-level knowledge you've got tucked away that you haven't even tapped into yet.