I mentioned a dead branch on the big hickory tree? Well, it may be mostly fallen down, but it's still partly attached. So the retrieval tool has to be less of a boat hook and more of a pole saw.
Looks like I can get a decent muscle-powered pole saw, with a fiberglass handle, for around $100. A cheap, 120V-powered electrical model, about the same... but I'd need either a heck of a long extension cord or a portable generator. (This particular task is not all that far from an electrical outlet, but I expect to need a pole saw for other things, too, some of them around the far side of the wooded area.)
Well, how about a battery-powered saw? That battery-powered hedge trimmer I got a while back works surprisingly well, and was a lot cheaper than any gas-powered model with decent reviews. With the exception of one drill-driver that I got as a cheap refurb a few years back, I've standardized on the Milwaukee M18 line for battery-powered tools so I don't need to keep a variety of battery types.
And, indeed, Milwaukee does make an M18 pole saw. But... seems it's only sold as a kit. For $400, including battery and charger. C'mon, guys: I already have batteries and a charger. That's what choosing a product line is all about. And for half the price, I can get an off-brand kit, complete with lame little battery (that's probably adequate for my purposes) and charger.
Meanwhile, in the wonderful world of health-care products: while my cough-drop consumption is vastly diminished from what it had been back in California, I'm still using a few of them, meaning that I'll need to resupply at some point. I look up the store-brand ones I like, on CVS - and they're in-store only. Hello? Are people who need cough drops the sort of customers you want to force to come into the store? Hmmmmm?
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