Late Night Shoveling

The Worcester to Auburn Drive Savior

A very prescient friend commented on yesterday’s blog entry that since I was finished with the wall that a certain Panamanian was bound to have additional tasks queued up. He was so right. She reminded me that I promised her new soil for the front yard gardens and that I was supposed to contact Deckzilla Dude about installing a backsplash in the kitchen. Working around one of those Mondays that earned that foul day its reputation I arranged for a load of garden soil to be delivered and for the dude to meet us after work.

Pile Last Night

I’ve said before physical labor is a great sedative following a challenging day behind a desk. When I pulled into the driveway I saw my wall-sore back was not getting a rest. I may have over ordered because the pile was huge and we were expecting some significant rain over night. That meant I had to move the portion sitting on the driveway if I didn’t want it to end up washed away. I was into the fifth or sixth wheelbarrow load when Deckzilla Dude showed up and the fun began. My wife wanted to know if he could move the center island he installed six inches. After that discussion they both got down to designing the backsplash which expanded to under counter lighting before I had a chance to catch my breath. He then suggested we all go to Home Depot so we could decide on the tile and buy what was needed.

This Morning

It’s at times like this that my life passes before my eyes. I have to forgive Deckzilla Dude because he’d never been in a situation where my wife has to make a decision in a retail environment. I resigned myself to my fate as we spent nearly an hour and a half in the Worcester store where my wife found a sheet of tile she liked but insisted the rest of the box was darker. We eventually abandoned efforts there and moved on to the Auburn Home Depot.

She's Getting So Big

I was not high in the morale department at this point and the Good Lord sent exactly what was needed as we drove down to Auburn – a FaceTime call from my granddaughter. It was the perfect tool I needed to avoid answering spousal questions that would have only gotten me into trouble. The medical effect lasted for the rest of the evening, impossible to be angry when confronted with her image. Another hour in Auburn and my wife was finally coaxed into making the necessary decisions. This was not work for the faint of heart. We got home around 9pm and I finally had my dinner before returning to the pile of dirt.

And Happy

One of my mother’s favorite expressions growing up whenever we didn’t excel in the educational arena was, “Keep this up and you’ll end up being a ditch digger.” This was a depression era saying as ditch digging was the lowest rung of the employment ladder. Mom was probably looking down last night and nodding a “told ya so” as I whittled down the pile. My wife, to her immense credit, was out there with me raking the piles of dirt I dumped into her future gardens. As a side note I got high marks from her on the quality of the dirt which had compost mixed in, so I’ve got that going for me. I’m sure the neighbors appreciated our late night driveway scraping.