Suntana's Blog Trek

Figaro! Figaro Figaro Fiiiiigaro!
Yeah Right! Did y'all actually think I got all dressed up in traditional going to the Opera attire, you know, a Thor-like helmet with horns and stuff and then headed out to attend an Opera? Don't be ridiculous. Of course I did no such thing.

I just thought I'd use that title so as to chronicle a particular adventure in which I've been engaged up to my neck recently. You know ... on the way to Valentine's Day, on my way to MyOpera. As some of y'all who follow my Blog are aware, my Dad & I periodically take on projects for family members. The latest project, which we are just about finishing, made me laugh when I first heard about it. Why? Some of y'all may remember that sometime last year, one of my nieces and her husband moved out from where they were living in my older brother & sister-in-law's house. My niece & her husband bought and moved into their own house.

My older brother & sister-in-law were sooo excited to regain their house all to themselves that they wanted to get rid of everything that wasn't theirs, anything that didn't belong there. So, on different occasions, my Dad & I were hired to disassemble and transport a Swimming Pool, a Trampoline and a Swings / Playhouse set to my niece's house. My Dad & I had from the get go dreaded the possibility of someday in the future being the ones to have to reassemble that Swings / Playhouse set at my niece's house. This, given that without instructions, it would be a Mission Impossible to reassemble that pile of wood and seemingly a million pieces of hardware into ... well, into something that resembled anything other than a pile of wood and hardware mess. At the time that my Dad & I had been disassembling the Swings / Playhouse, we had pretty much gone, "Wooooooo! We pity whoever has to put this MESS back together again … and without instructions."

Well, once the MESS was at my niece's house, she did on a couple of occasions drop some very overt hints of her wanting my Dad & I to reassemble the Swings / Playhouse. But, being scared Shitless to take on the project, my Dad & I kept finding strategic ways to keep putting off the project.

As it happened, I recently dropped by my niece's house to use her High Speed Internet to download some Apps. While there, I decided to take a look at the pile of wood MESS to see if by now it looked any less intimidating. Nope. I was wrong. It still looked ready to kick anyone's Ass who dared try to reassemble it.

The next day, out of the blue, my sister-in-law called me and said that now my older brother wanted to hire my Dad & I to transport the Swings / Playhouse BACK to their house and reassemble it there. That's right. Right back where it used to be. Right back at the very spot where they had no longer wanted to see so much as any atom-sized evidence that it used to exist there. It's that my older brother and sister-in-law decided that now when my niece's little boy and little girl go visit, they have nothing with which to play. So, knowing that my older brother and sister-in-law do always pay us very well, my Dad & I decided, "Nnnnggg, O --- Kay! FINE! We'll do it." With some definite trepidation and definitely NOT 100% confident that we could put that Sucker … I mean, that Swings / Playhouse back together, we took on the challenge.

So, we transported the pile of wood MESS from my niece's house back to its original home, my older brother's backyard. While we could figure out where some parts went, not surprisingly we quickly got stumped. Luckily my sister-in-law informed me that my niece was gonna be dropping by with some pictures of what the Swings / Playhouse used to look like. They weren't the most ideal pictures, but nevertheless, with them and my niece's more solid recollection of how the Swings / Playhouse used to look like, we started making headway.

Sometimes we had mini debates there between all three of us … my niece, my Dad & I as to how something went together. But, my niece's recollection was pretty solid and the most reliable. She turned out to be very helpful. And my Dad & I appreciated her help very much. We're NOT the type of guys to have the attitude that that was Assembly / Construction work and therefore MEN's territory. My niece pretty much turned out to be correct whenever she informed us something was WRONG, backwards or whatever.

While my Dad & I would have probably been able to put that Swings / Playhouse together eventually, it would have taken us longer AND it would NOT have looked the way it was supposed to. It would have had a different LOOK. You know … with certain parts backwards and in the wrong place. Like I remember one day when I kept telling my Dad, "I don't like this Rope Ladder. It is dangerous. It is a hazard. SEE? I'm an adult and I'm finding it unsafe to climb. Kids can easily fall back." Well, as it turned out, when my niece dropped by later, she immediately noticed and pointed out, "Whoa! These boards aren't supposed to be here in front. I don't recall them being here like this." My Dad & I tried to explain it away, "Ohhh, they HAVE to be there that way to make the frame sturdy." My niece countered, "But, the kids would have tripped all the time if those boards had been there before." My Dad & I were calmly adamant, "Well, that's the only way they can go." So, my niece searched through the pictures on her phone and finally goes, "Ahhh HAH! THERE! SEE? Those 2 boards should be in the back … NOT in the front." I immediately confirmed that she was absolutely correct. And I immediately noticed that that new observation of how those boards went would fix the Rope Ladder problem.

Yadi Yadi Yada … my niece got us back on track on several occasions. Little does my niece know that at one point, my Dad & I actually SAWED OFF a little piece of board which was sticking out about half an inch. We couldn't figure out why the board didn't want to cooperate. So, Fugg It! We decided, "Saw it off and the problem will be solved. No more board sticking out." My Dad & I also applied a coat of Weatherproofing and a coat of Clear Coat on the Swings / Playhouse. It now looks awesome. It's NOT 100% finished yet. We still have to go back there one more time to screw on the 2 coverings on the roof and on the front.

But, anyway, it's hilarious that we used to pity whoever was gonna be the Suckers who got stuck putting that Swings / Playhouse MESS back together … and WE wound up being said Suckers And it's hilarious that it ended up being reassembled right back where it started, in its original home.

Oh yeah … I guess it IS my birthday today.
So, any Butter and / or Art is welcome!