The Swing Era

No, I'm not reminiscing about the years of "Frankie Boy" and the decades that preceded Rock and Roll. 
Maybe another time.
My daughter turned two this past week.  We celebrated by giving her probably her most expensive birthday gift ever. 
We found a super-colossal swing set made of cedar, with three different swings, a rock-climb ladder, overhead bars and of course a slide.
Here's the problem...we received the slide on Thursday and had until Savannah's birthday party yesterday to put this monstrosity together.
We had ordered it late last week, but were fighting with the shipping agent over delivery times, which delayed in our receiving it.
We enlisted the help of my younger brother Heath in getting this put together, as there was nowhere near enough time to get this put together on my own.
This turned out to be more involved than I ever imagined.
Add temperatures hovering close to 100 into the mix. 
Now add hardware issues...too much of one screw, not enough of one bolt, and hoping Heath had enough spare hardware to get us by.
Savannah's party was at 4pm.  And the clock was ticking.
At 3:30, when it finally appeared done, I asked Heath if we could call this project done.  He said yes.
I took a quick shower, got dressed, shaved and was ready to welcome our guests.
And then...
"Honey, are those clamps staying at the bottom of the swings?"
Oops.
I rushed outside and found that my brother still had the drill out.  I found the hardware I needed and quickly drilled the holes for the bottom support beam for the swing half of the set...right as my brother-in-law and his brood showed up. 
Aside from the tiedown stakes, I called it done.  As long as no one got too crazy on it, the stakes could wait a day or two.
And as it turned out, the fun on the swing lasted about five minutes, if that, before the kids tired of the Death Valley-grade heat and sought shelter in our air-conditioned house. 
Even Savannah tired of it rather quickly.
She would have much rather spent time getting a bath than be out there.
And she did just that after company left...with her new bath toys.

NEXT WEEK:  AC...ACK!!!