May Day
We had big plans for May Day that included a visit to the park, flower collecting, May beetle research, and working on Ty’s book (he’s writing a book). But God laughs when I make plans.
I woke up to let Isis outside, and she walked into the screened patio and through one of the panels. Yes, she walked through one of the panels. Of course, it had been ripped off! I told the kids, as they were waking, to keep the doors closed (we usually have them open as we do not run the air conditioning) until we fix the screen. But Dad thought that it would be a better idea to let the air (my ears heard “mosquitoes”) in. Okay, we have to fix the screen today. So I ripped off the rest of the panel to figure how it was put together as I’ve never put together screen and spline before. I took measurements and piled the kids in the car to head to The Home Depot. But I forgot the spline. I got the wrong size of spline (I eyeballed it), so I couldn’t put the screen up before I went to work.
Even with the right sized spline I wouldn’t have been able to put the screen up as one side of the panel had spline that had dry rotted in the groove, so it was next to impossible to rip it out. I used a screwdriver, the pointed end of a can opener, and eventually knitting needles to scrape it out. But that didn’t get done until this morning. That particular task took more than an hour. After that, it was easy breezy.
I didn’t know what I was doing at first – but everybody feels that way when doing something new. I got some wrinkles in the beginning and ended up doing each side twice to smooth the wrinkles out, but it looks good now!
No May poles. No May flowers. No May baskets nor May bettles this May Day. Only the work of American hands that preserves and strengthens the great heritage of liberty, justice and equality under law which our forefathers bequeathed to us.
Happy Loyalty* Day!
*As per Public Law 85-529 passed by Congress in 1958, Loyalty Day falls annually on May 1 for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.
