tales from the shelf : Spring-Loaded Trajectory

My organized reserve depot was ready, but that chunky yellow steel tape measure sitting near the bench vise practically dared me to test its recoil tension! I dragged my boots across the sawdust, jammed my claw into the hooked brass lip, and hauled the rigid metal ribbon out across the wood grain until twenty inches of calibrated steel hovered in midair. I perched an empty iron hex nut right on the concave tip, aimed straight toward an empty coffee can, and kicked the spring thumb-release—ZZZ-SNAP! The tape whipped back in a blur of yellow, launching the nut through the air with a vicious metallic ping that rattled the can against the wall! Rapid-deployment artillery calibrated!