I gave my son all kinds of used tools for Xmas over the years and every year he gave me "THE" look followed by an eye roll. He's in his 50's now and never did learn to use any of them, which is probably just as well.

Why is it just as well?

It's usually the dad who is the one who teaches his son to use tools...

I did as much of that for my daughter as I could until she turned 12 and her mom got her a smart phone and now she only wants to play on that and do sports. I take the phone away sometimes and I'm The Bad Guy.

When my (adult) kids need something fixed, I will show them how. I prefer to have them use their hands while I instruct. I annoy them with this. After I'm gone, they might thank me. Or they'll talk about how annoying I was.

His interest lies elsewhere and he made a great career for himself doing what he really loved doing. Now he has an excuse to call grandpa over to help with mechanical stuff. Or just drink beer if nothing needs fixing. It's all good

Ah good point. I'm not there yet; my daughter's only 12. Even at only 12, she has lost all interest in fixing anything. She's only interested in sports and friends now.

I did the same thing for my 34 year old son.
HOWEVER I did not teach him how to use those tools. His Grandpa (My retired shop teacher Father-in-law) did the teaching.
As a result I have a son that is a good handyman/shade tree mechanic.

-I have trained young healthcare residents surgical procedures in a hospital setting for over 15 years now. It is been my opinion that the young doctors coming to me now have had progressively worse hand skills. Likely from a life time of playing on the phone rather than learning manual skill like sewing, wood carving, model building, leather crafts, auto maintained, cake decorating etc.
The loss of high school shop classes and dependence on cell phones have turned our youth into a bunch of fast fact finders that can't cut their way out of a paper bag.

I have read several articles recently that talk about the loss of hand strength in people under the age of 30. Studies have shown that people currently between the age of 25-29 have about 20% less hand strength than people of the same age in 1985.

In my own anecdotal observation, when working with my son (currently aged 22) on woodworking projects, he noticeably struggles compared to me in things that require large amounts of hand strength, i.e. using a screwdriver to hand tighten a stubborn screw.

I was at a party last night and a friend was boasting about his son, college Jr, who at his internship was faced with a custom-fabricated device (something to do with a vessel for dealing with an object/material in a sealed chamber of inert gas), the device wasn't working well, and he was able to study it, figure out the problem, study up on thread pitches, and order some very specific parts from McMaster-Carr, and get the device working well again. This kid is I guess an exceptional case that reinforces your point; he wastes probably as much time on his phone as the next kid, but he's a violinist & pianist, an avid cook, has taken classes to learn about blacksmithing, etc, so he's quite good with his hands.

Maybe a budding mechanical engineer? Sounds like the kind of thing they study.

He's majoring in Materials Science; his direct internship tasking was more about using that inert-gas box, fixing it was just extra, and the employers were impressed (hence the father's boastiness)

I observed this, too. I taught a bike repair class in 2010 and 2011, I think. I was in Maplewood, NJ at the time. My kids had been through middle school where they had had woodworking, sewing, cooking, and maybe some other shop class. My students were younger, and the middle schools had just canceled the shop classes. My impression was that most of these kids had never been told by anyone how to do anything with their hands. I had to break down the process of using a screwdriver, and I had never known to say to make the screwdriver follow the orientation of your forearm. It was like a revelation. My class overfilled, and most of the kids loved it because they were learning the type of skill they lacked. I witnessed a few "light bulb" moments which are glorious. I love teaching manual skills, and I hope I can do it again. Kids really love it, it's very useful, and I'm really good at it.

I have three very different kids. The one who has the knack does not seem to have the drive. The one who's the smartest does not have the knack, but he will be able to do anything fine after reading about it only once. The one with the most grit is having a hell of a time with reading and math. So I don't really subscribe to "kids these days"

I'm about to have a masters degree in Special Education. My belief is that for every disability there is a superpower. Humans have amazing potentials if we just lay the roads out for them and point the way. I also don't subscribe to the "kids these days" sentiment. I can tell you are a wonderful parent.

Found a cell phone along the side of the road. Was locked but was able to get a name, call a number, and get a call back. Turns out was stolen from their vehicle while parked at the beach. They were visiting from out of province. Was able to meet up and return it with about 2hrs before their flight home. 👍

I've found several combination wrenches and Allen wrenches in the road, as well as a high-viz vest still in plastic wrap. And I found this Snap-On work light:

Dang, were they ever lucky someone found it immediately, then by more luck you were able to get back to them just 2 hours before they had to leave, crazy, what's the odds of all of that happening at the same time and at the right time?

well it wasnt quite, but it did all work out. Was stolen the day before. I found it early on my ride, and didnt track him down until later in the day, but still to only have 2hrs before the flight, he was very grateful.

One day I found a receiver hitch pin. A week later I found the receiver hitch about 1/4 mile down the road.

Did you find the trailer later?

That would've been nice, for sure! Not sure how I'd have hitched it up to the gravel bike. Lol

with the hitch and pin, of course!

A dead opossum...at least I thought it was dead.

I was riding my bike along the 101 hwy between El Capiton Beach and Goleta California this last summer. I was approaching a large but "dead" raccoon, with its guts hanging out, as I approached and got next to it, it suddenly moved its head bared his teeth at me and growled at me! If I had a gun, I would have put it out its misery.