Tuesday, December 24, 2002


Jump on this.....
The other day when Julie had given me the moral courage to go shopping, she had one request of her own. "Please can we go by Sam's Wholesale Club and pick up a trampoline....for little Jack". I agreed, not knowing that a trampoline in a box weighs approximately 300 lbs, is ungainly and would stick 3 feet out of the back of my sedan, even with the rear seats folded down and the box protruding into the back of my neck. My luxury sedan, has a feature that I love. The rear seats fold down allowing large objects to be loaded into the trunk and thenceforth into the passenger compartment, and thusly my neck.

Well things that come in boxes have to be assembled, and ones that say boldly, "Easy to Assemble, no tools necessary", strike fear into any man's heart on Christmas Eve. But today was the day, and Jack will be back at home the day after Christmas so we needed for Santa to have the stinkin' trampoline, in "ready to trample" condition by then. I had allotted two full days for the chore, brought my full tool complement and struck heartily into ripping the box open to find enough aluminum tubing to build a medium sized airplane. Along with several acres of matting, and 96 springs that Hercules would have trouble putting a stretch to.

But to make a long story short....I was mightily pleased to find that, with Julie's help, it really went together quite easily [two hours] and really didn't require tool one. The instructions weren't too hard to dicepher, in spite of the fact that from step 5 one went to step 7. I suppose they found that step 6 was entirely superfluous and so they don't print it anymore. But the most important thing was that Mama was happy, 'cause if Mama ain't happy......ain't no one happy. She even took the first "trample" on the trampoline....