Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A 3-D Puzzle.

Last night I set myself the task of rebuilding Linas' wardrobe. It was one of those flimsy constructions made from aluminium poles slotted together and covered with a black paper/fabric cover. He had bought it several years ago to store all his outdoor gear in and it wasn't up to the job. For some time now it has been sitting dismantled in 2 boxes and I also knew that some of it was broken. Before throwing it out however, I wanted to see what sort of state it was in and whether it could be given away or simply chucked. It took all my skills of logic and memories of the days when we went camping with big old frame tents but eventually it was built. Very rickety but most of the frame was still there. I left it overnight, had a think and in the morning I reduced the size (the wire shelves were not much good anyway) and to increase the stability I converted some of the spare poles into diagonal cross braces fixed with good old gaffer tape. (Some of the engineering principles from Scrap Heap must have sunk in.) I've threaded some curtain rings on the top bars to hang light curtains from and now I have some extra hanging space which can be dismantled easily when no longer needed. And it cost me nothing but a morning's work. It has been raining all day, hence the indoor work which included a major clean up of Linas' room. This family seems intent on keeping every bit of packaging 'in case things have to sent back or are sold on', but I'm getting rid of stuff discretely. I can see another trip to the dump looming - good!
It has finally stopped raining so I nipped out into the garden to take a few pictures. Everything is so wet, that's a British summer for you!