My wife ordered a mattress and bed frame for one of our bedrooms. The mattress arrived in time for guests but the bed frame was delayed. It arrived last week and I was tasked with putting it together. A normal bed frame can be put together in five minutes with another five or ten minutes to attach the headboard and footboard. Of course, my wife never buys anything that is easy to put together.

I opened the box and was just overwhelmed by all the pieces. I imagined a nuclear submarine had fewer parts. Fortunately, Frankie was there to offer assistance.

Frankie must have realized that this job needed more that one snoopervisor so he called in Floki.

Eventually, both of them got bored so Chris came in to take over.

When I was close to being done Frankie and Floki came back to check my progress.

By the time I was finished more than two hours after I started, I was alone.

A day or two later, a box arrived with a desk for Rose. She bought an antique desk a couple of weeks ago and decided she didn’t like that I had nothing to do so she ordered a desk with twice and many parts as the nuclear bedframe.

Again, Frankie was first to offer help but soon Floki was there to help too.

Then Chris came to supervise the supervisors.

This project took me almost four hours to complete. The boys tried to stay focused but five minutes at a time was all they could muster. To there credit, they would each come back and check on me from time to time.

I just don’t know why these things always need to be so complicated. I think the designers forgot the K.I.S.S. principal of design (keep it simple, stupid).

To add insult to injury, the next day a big box showed up at the door. I dragged it inside and saw it was a bedframe. I thought it was a mistake. The company must have made an error. But nope, Rose ordered it for a bed that already had a bedframe. You know, one of those five minute frames. It just needed a headboard and footboard and it didn’t even need that. Who cares if one of the two guest beds doesn’t have a headboard? You just don’t want guests to get too comfortable.

I guess after I recover from the last two assembly projects, I will put it together. At least I know I will have three little helpers to make it easier . . . or harder.