I went out in the backyard and saw the soldier standing next to his giant, earthquake-proof, indestructible saw horse.

“Jeez, now that is something,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said, pointing out the various attributes of the thing. “Be even stronger once I get the strips on the legs.  You can store wood down here,” he said pointing towards the bottom. “I’ll have my workbench and if you have to climb up and paint something,” he said pointing to the rafters of the house, “you’ll be able to.”

I nodded.

“Yeah, and it will be good. Not one of those things made so skinny motherf’ckers can stand on ‘em. You know… those skinny people, those crackheads and people like that?”

I laughed. “I know what you mean.”

“Yeah, this is not built for crackheads or those skinny people with no weight to them.  A rhino is going to be able to climb on this thing and do this…”

With his hands on top the horse to steady himself, he started pawing his foot as if he were a bull ready to charge. Having nothing to add, I went inside realizing he looks more like a rhinoceros every day… and being glad of it.