Stringing a ukulele

Odd subject you may think.  It is a lesson in both character and patience.  Forty years ago I could string and tune a twelve string guitar.  Eighteen years ago I bought a baritone ukulele.  It was smaller, easier to carry and it was like playing just the bottom four pairs of strings.  Fifteen years ago I broke a string and simply never replaced it.  My mother died in August and in going through everything, we found the ukulele.  I have recently been encouraged by my best friend to resurrect my interest in music.  As a result, I ordered new strings.  They came yesterday.  I have not played for fifteen years and I have not re-strung anything in thirty years.  As I said to my friend, " It's only four strings, how hard could it be?"  As Robert laughed, he said, "Never ask that question."  I came to understand what he meant.  It is absolutely tempting fate to show you exactly how hard it can be.  Yesterday I spent several hours putting strings on, anchoring them incorrectly, putting them in incorrect order and trying to tune each string to a note it was never designed to reach.  Last night I put it all aside because I seemed unable to achieve my objective.  Today when I went to resume this now complex project, I discovered that I had to remove all of the strings and re-sequence and re-tune them.  It is done now, but had I simply done a little research yesterday, I could have saved a lot of time.  I once worked in an accounting office with a boss whose favorite question was, "Why is there never enough time to do it right the first time, but always enough to do it over?"  It was a good question, Harry.  I am still asking that one.  I did, however, learn some  important things about myself.  First, I am stubborn and persistent.  Not bad qualities, but they can cost you time, so whatever it is, needs to be worth it.  Second, I am patient.  Patience somehow imbues the time spent with a special quality of understanding and appreciation.  All in all, re-stringing a ukelele is not a bad Saturday afternoon project.