[Intro]
(Acoustic guitar picking with a low diesel idle in the background)

[Verse 1]
Back in twenty-nineteen when the cold wind blew
My old Bosch hammer drill gave up on cue
Thirty years of aggregate and granite dust
It finally quit on me, grinding into rust
Then Tony’s brother-in-law Jack stepped in the room
A slick tool salesman dealing out my doom
He sold me a lightweight red-cased toy
Said 'It drills twice as fast, take it easy, boy.'

[Verse 2]
Down at the curling club on frozen ground
I went to set that ledger board solid and sound
Lagging into cinder block, two inches deep
With anchors that a real mason wouldn't keep
That cheap drill wobbled and it bored too wide
I felt the hollow rattle in my chest inside
I slapped the nuts tight, hoping it would hold
And turned my back against the Northwestern cold.

[Chorus]
Oh, the inspector signed off with an easy pen
Said it looked pretty fair to him and his men
Cast an eye on the bracket, called it good to go
But the frost line always finds out what you know
You can re-thread a brass fitting if it slips its groove
Fix a weeping pipe when the joints won't move
Turn a stubborn bolt when you take it slow
But you can't re-thread the anchor that you let go.

[Verse 3]
Now every time I turn the F-150 down the street
I check that exterior wall through the slush and sleet
That six-by-eight fir is pulling clean away
A quarter-inch gap getting wider every day
Jack hopped on Highway Seventeen back down south
With a pocket full of commission and a running mouth
Leaving me with the shame of a shortcut made
On the hardest bedrock where a footer’s laid.

[Chorus]
Oh, the inspector signed off with an easy pen
Said it looked pretty fair to him and his men
Cast an eye on the bracket, called it good to go
But the frost line always finds out what you know
You can re-thread a brass fitting if it slips its groove
Fix a weeping pipe when the joints won't move
Turn a stubborn bolt when you take it slow
But you can't re-thread the anchor that you let go.

[Bridge]
Brenda hears me tossing at three in the morning dark
Staring at the ceiling while the neighbor dogs bark
She says 'Joe, let it rest, the whole building’s standing fine'
She don't understand you can't lie to a chalk line
A man can hide a bad patch under coats of parge
Till the winter freeze comes back and charges him a surcharge.

[Chorus]
'Cause the inspector signed off with an easy pen
Said it looked pretty fair to him and his men
Cast an eye on the bracket, called it good to go
But the frost line always finds out what you know
You can re-thread a brass fitting if it slips its groove
Fix a weeping pipe when the joints won't move
Turn a stubborn bolt when you take it slow
But you can't re-thread the anchor that you let go.

[Outro]
Never trust a tool lighter than your conscience, son
Take the extra hour till the cure is done
Yeah, you can't re-thread a reputation on the Shield
It pulls away slow... out in the open field.
(Pedal steel fades over acoustic strum and idling engine)