One of the final steps remained before I felt as prepared as possible for our new arrival, the installation of the car seat. Based on one of the safety classes we had taken, this was going to be quite the ordeal. Our instructor told us that the majority of people fail at installing it properly. I was not looking forward to the task, but I was stressed that it was not yet completed. After a thorough read of both the owner's manual for the car and the instruction booklet for the car seat, I felt ready to go. Now, I'm not the most handy person, but what I lack in handiness, I make up in my attention to detail. After about 3 minutes, I appeared to be done. How could this be? Wasn't this one of the most complicated tasks expectant fathers were required to perform? Three minutes seemed way off, yet nothing was left to be done. I brought the car seat out, and sure enough it clicked in soundly. I pulled on it and it did not budge. The only thing left was to have a fireman or designated police officer check it to make sure it was secure. After many attempts to locate the aforementioned parties, Julie found that I could just pull up to a Castle Rock Fire Station and ask them to take a look. My first attempt resulted in the fire truck leaving as I pulled up. Second time was a charm. Surely this tough fireman would be able to move this car seat around and tell me the flaws. He opened the door and pulled and yanked and could not budge the car seat. He looked at me and said, "I'm impressed, I'm really impressed. Most people come in here and have all sorts of problems, but this really looks good." While I did not show my pride, I was quite pleased with myself and my outrageous feats of strength. Looks like this strongman is a little too tough for the firemen. After a firm handshake, I was on my way back home feeling less prideful and wondering why my hand hurt so bad after a simple handshake. Maybe I'm not really that tough.
