So, I was working on the NYT crossword the other day, just relaxing with a cup of coffee. Got to a clue, something like “secures as a rope”. And bam! It wasn’t just about finding the answer, which I eventually got, I think it was TIES or maybe LASHES? Doesn’t matter. What mattered was the flood of memories that little phrase brought back.
That Time with the Bookcase
It reminded me instantly of this one time, years ago, when I helped my buddy move. He had this massive, old wooden bookcase. Solid oak, weighed a ton. We somehow managed to wrestle it down three flights of stairs. Getting it into the truck was the next challenge.
We slid it in, but it was awkward. Didn’t sit flat, wobbled around. My friend says, “We gotta tie this thing down, man.” Of course, neither of us were exactly knot experts. We found this length of old rope in his garage. Looked sturdy enough.
So, there we were:
- We looped the rope over the top of the bookcase.
- Tried to find decent anchor points inside the truck bed. Those little metal loops.
- I pulled one end, he pulled the other.
- Then came the knot part. What knot do you even use? I just started wrapping it around itself, pulling tight, making loops. Think I ended up doing something that looked like a granny knot mixed with… well, just a mess.
We spent a good 15 minutes just trying to make it feel secure. Pulling on the bookcase, shaking it. Did it move? A little. Was it ‘secured’? Ish. Good enough, we hoped.
The drive over to his new place was nerve-wracking. Every bump, every turn, I was just picturing that bookcase smashing against the side of the truck bed, or worse. We drove super slow. Like, ridiculously slow.
We got there, thankfully, bookcase intact. Untying the rope was almost as hard as tying it. That knot had somehow tightened itself into a solid lump.
Funny how a simple crossword clue, “secures as a rope,” just brought that whole afternoon back. The pulling, the wrapping, the uncertainty. Yeah, we secured it. Barely. Good times, sort of.
