This summer, I ran in a different state almost every day for 10 days. When I was running down a gravel dirt road, between the corn fields in Iowa I found a really excellent, workman grade tape measure that had been tossed off someone's truck. It was at least 3 pounds of strong metal tape, with a thick plastic casing. I put it in the shoulder of my industrial strength running bra and supported it with one hand it while we ran 5 miles back to the hotel. My daughter made fun of me for lugging it back. But it was really high quality, and in good shape. I left the measuring tape back at the farm in South Carolina with my Uncle, thinking he could use it on the farm. There hasn't been a week since that day I haven't regretted leaving it. I have needed it every day for the last week. I use a bunched up cloth and vinyl seamstresses tape measure instead. Today my daughter was using that flimsy thing to measure out a wall in her room for a project--she looked at me and said "what did you do with that great tape measure you found in Iowa?". | 