Where there is movement, there is improvement.

-- Rick Helders

There are state laws and federal laws, traffic laws and hunting laws.

And then there are the laws of physics.

One of the most famous is Sir Isaac Newton's law of motion, which generally maintains a non-moving object has a tendency to remain so.

This explains much in the skies above us, much on the earth around us and a lot about government agencies.

It also explains husbands on Sunday afternoons, after church and sitting in front of a Braves game on TV. Which is to say, it explains me, in a large chair with the den ceiling fan providing an in-house breeze and a soothing hum.

It is at these moments, however, that I often hear from someone else in the house. It is my wife, who asks a favor. Just a small one, she says.

Could I put together that bathroom shelf she bought two years ago? It's the one in the boxed, build-it-yourself kit that's been sitting in a closet corner.

How hard can it be? I ask myself. That is a question I will spend the next three hours answering.

The box contains 13 fake wood pieces of differing sizes and shapes: shelves, framing, doors and three I never found a use for. There are about a dozen labeled plastic bags containing hinges, nails and bolts. There are three types of screws -- two with Phillips heads -- and one set so small, I have to use reading glasses to consistently find the screw-head grooves. There are 14 wooden pegs and a squeeze container of glue. There is also a four-page instruction sheet that suggests this is a "two-person activity."

I accept the challenge alone.

Having faced many home improvement efforts in the past, I know I should try to "build" my unit in advance without actually fastening everything for good. This improves the chances that I will get everything turned the right way before gluing, nailing or screwing pieces together improperly.

It is frustrating work, taking several hours of intricate, irritating labor. More than once (four times to be accurate) I put the wrong (peg/screw/bolt) in a pre-drilled hole, only to realize the mistake several steps later. That means I have to take it all apart and put it back the right way.

When I finally finished, I had a dainty example of shelf-ware that was so unstable it came with two anchoring bolts and the printed suggestion you drill holes into the wall to stabilize it and keep the whole thing from collapsing under the weight of a half-dozen hand towels. I took them up on the suggestion.

I then took up residence in my chair in front of the TV, thankful the Braves game was going extra innings.

I had a feeling of accomplishment, not because I had built something useful, but because I disproved Sir Isaac Newton when it comes to laws of inertia.

An easy mistake, really, because history tells us Mr. Newton never married.