May 4 – “Back in the saddle”

Things are still showing up that made it through Hurricane Ike.  On the surface they seemed relatively unscathed, but as time went on the true inner damage began to reach the surface.  One such victim was the rocking horse.  I don't remember (that's getting to be quite the byword for me lately) where or when we actually got the old horse.  I think we have had it through all three of our boys, though.  For a long time it hung on the wall in the garage, disassembled but ready to return at a moment's notice.  It finally made its grand reappearance for the grandkids, and they have been enjoying it ever since.    It rode the waves through the flood and seemed to be fine, but like everything else around here that had any semblance of metal on it, the frame began to rust.  Honestly, if I had taken the time to scrape it and repaint it back when it first began, I could probably have added a year or two to its lifespan.  But alas, other things kept taking precedence.  First the house.  Then furnishing the house.  Then … well, one thing after another.  Life.  And so the poor rocking horse suffered.    It's not like the horse itself has any problems.  It was made out of plastic.  His only problem was the handle that went through his head between his ears.  (Of course it's a "he."  We had three boys, remember?).  The plastic covering over the wooden dowel cracked and fell off.  The dowel is still there, though.  It just kept sliding out until a few weeks ago when I put some bicycle handgrips on each side.  Works fine now.  Even the springs seem to work fine.  They are also pretty rusty, but I'm hoping to clean them up enough so they will last at least through Josiah's stint on horseback.  The only issue is the frame.    Last week one of our guest kids was taking a ride when the frame finally gave up the ghost.  I wasn't out there when it happened, but I'm sure it scared him at least a little.  I guess he found out what it was like back in the Old West when the cowboy's horse got shot out from under him.  The center part just cracked on both sides.  No fixing it.  So I began working on some plans for a new one.    Now, I'm no metal worker, and I'm not much of a woodworker, but I think I can get this thing done out of some four by fours and two by fours and big old eye hooks.  I drew a picture of what I have in mind.  I think I'm going to ask my buddy Ken about it when he gets here this week.  He's an ex-contractor/ carpenter/ cabinetmaker.  Here's hoping that Roy Rogers or Zorro or even some obscure John Wayne figure will be back in the saddle again real soon.   Psalms 80:7 says, "Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."   Father, forgive us when we allow our lives to get rusty and too weak to hold up even the lightest of your children in need.  Amen.