Here's a riddle for you: what has 47 screws, hundreds of staples, a 50-lb. shipping pallet, four 4-in. bolts, two 2x4's, six sheets of particle board, six pieces of Styrofoam and several yards of shrink wrap?If you guessed the shipping container for one of Finn's birthday presents, you'd be exactly right. The picture to the right was emailed to us with no explanation as to what was contained within. I'm about a month overdue in posting this, but it's taken me that long just to get inside the box.
Given my laziness and the effort that I anticipated would be required in opening it, I was content to leave the crate as-is and present Finn with a big wooden box from his Grandpa Finn, Aunt Kelly and cousins Caroline & Sam. However, Kitty was dying to know what was inside so off I went to find some power tools, a crowbar, some day laborers and an acetylene cutting torch.
After seven days of work, including multiple requests for city demolition permits, I finally got it open. Cracking the seal felt like opening the Ark of the Covenant - except instead of my face melting off, I was presented with this:
It's a Victorian rocking horse. With real horse hair. And a leather saddle.
Beautiful? Yes. Startling when you catch it out of the corner of your eye in a dark room? A little.
Extracting this thing from the crate was more difficult than extracting Kitty and Finn from the house. I hired a crane and a team of draft elephants to hoist it up and into the house. It was finally unwrapped and presented to the "birthday boy" yesterday.
He immediately took off galloping around the basement chasing the cats. I think he needs some help with his riding form. Hopefully his cousin Caroline will be able to give him some pointers this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment