Dot and Hank on 40th Anniversary Weekend

While preparing for Dot's 75th birthday party Carol spotted this nifty canopied swing at Wal-Mart, and remarked that it would be a good anniversary present for Dot & Hank. The week before their anniversary, Paul got a sale catalog from Service Merchandise that included it for less than the Wal-Mart price, so she must have been right.

Dot and Hank in swing

Carol told them it was a "Mothers and Fathers day present combined." The anniversary present was Carol and Paul putting it together for them.

Paul is arguably the least "mechanically inclined" person in the family, and you can tell that 'cause he gets advice on mechanical things from Carol. Carol wasn't real keen on the idea of putting this thing together, but Paul said "with any luck Hank will be there to tell us how." Hank wasn't.

Although there were 15 million pieces to this thing, and it was the hottest day of the year so far, the box included "all the tools you need" so Carol and Paul set out to follow the detailed instructions. Which, unfortunately, included very fine print that neither of them could discern very well with sweat pouring into their eyes...

Carol and Paul had assembled (then dis-assembled and re-assembled the right way) the frame and were struggling with the seat part when Dot and Hank got back from Wal-Mart. Dot saved at least two lives by providing lemonade, and Hank sorted out the seat geometry and provided tools that worked a lot better than the ones that were included in the box.

When the thing was finally working, we took a picture. We should've videotaped the assembly process...