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Sometimes it's best to tell stories on yourself. ..even if embarrassing.

I hang bird feeders daily on my deck. Two feeders hang on hooks attached to the house; a third is suspended from a plastic cord anchored by turnbuckles to the house at one end and a pole on the other.

This morning I hooked one feeder to the middle of the cord, and watched everything plummet to the deck as one turnbuckle tore away from its anchor on the house.

No big deal, I thought. I'll screw it back into the turnbuckle and re-attach it. I fitted the screw into the turnbuckle and turned it. It wouldn't engage. I tried again...and again. I took the screw off the other end to see if that would work.

No success. I figured the threads were stripped.

So I stopped at Ace Hardware, explained the problem and asked the manager to help.

'No problem" he said, fitting the screw into the turnbuckle immediately.

"Turnbuckles are threaded counter-clockwise." he said with a smile.

Which I would have known if I were a sailor.