Leftovers

My brother has always had this uncanny ability to take things apart and successfully put them back together. He used to take pens apart and put them back together, now he can do the same with computers. This is something I always looked upon with amazement, as I would look at the many pieces with bewilderment. You'd think that now, when I need to take things apart to fix or clean them, I'd be a little better at the reassembly side of things, but that is not a safe assumption to make.

I've recently had to take apart two household items--our refrigerator during its recent major cleaning and the high chair you see above in order to paint it. I looked very closely at the various parts, thinking both that the assembly made perfect sense and that there would be no trouble at all in how it went back together. Not so. I have something left over from the fridge. I have no idea what it is or where it came from. How can that be? I use the refrigerator all the time! And the high chair--again, not a complicated set up, but I still wasn't quite sure how the tray screwed back into the chair.

So, I wonder, will I remember to draw a diagram next time? Make sure I know what every piece is for and where it goes? Probably not. Fortunately Shawn is around with a similarly mechanical mind to my brother's, and can usually clean up my leftover parts without any problem. So, Timothy was actually able to sit in the chair now that it is finally finished and the fridge is still working just fine, thank goodness!