Asphalt and the Missing Piece

I was hoping to take only a half day off from work yesterday but that was before a machine starting leaking and a trailer wheel fell off. Let me explain. Since buying the house four years ago I’ve spent part of every spring trying to patch up the driveway to the point it looked like a fair imitation of a Frankenstein monster. It needed a complete replacement. Great Aunt was questioning why I wanted to replace it until she saw it last Saturday. She now agrees with me. So back to leaking machines and stray tires.

BRS Sneaking up on her Sister

I hired a young guy starting out with his own business because he seemed motivated, was local, and it didn’t hurt that he was an Army brat. He was supposed to show up at 730am to start and promised to have me done by noon, but by 10am and no show I was beginning to question going with a young guy. He finally pulled in and immediately got to work while simultaneously explaining one of his machines was leaking badly so he replaced it and while enroute a tire on his trailer had popped off. Again my confidence wasn’t peaking at this point but then I watched him work.

Sawing into the old Driveway

Destruction Starts

The Last Sections Lifted Out

The Entire Old Driveway in One Truck

As required for my generation I’ve always questioned whether young people still have a work ethic. I guess this guy never got the memo that he wasn’t supposed to work that hard because I got tired just watching him. He was a dynamo and obviously put a lot of care into the quality of his work. I only knew he had arrived because he was already cutting into the old driveway with a saw. He then mounted his little bobcat and proceeded to uproot Frankenstein and load it into his dump truck. He somehow fit the entire old driveway into one truck. That truck disappeared only to return with a healthy load of underlayment which he spent a lot of time leveling and compacting before the asphalt showed up.

Underlayment Arrives

Gets Spread Out

And Compacted

He used the bobcat to transfer the asphalt onto the site. He then used a modified rake to level the steaming new driveway and tamped that down by sections. He took a lot of care to slope the driveway to expedite water runoff and even protected part of my wife’s nearby vast garden complex. He finished, exhausted, around 6pm. I ended up spending a large part of the day just admiring how hard the guy worked. The result was sunburn. After my recent bouts with the dermatologist I’ve taken extra steps to avoid ultraviolet rays, even wearing long sleeved shirts while I work outside. I’m in the running for the whitest guy in the US to add to my existing title of the whitest guy in Panama. Spending that much time outside on a sunny day was a bad idea. On the upside I’m very happy with the result, as far as the driveway goes.

Spreading the Asphalt

Compacting it

The New Driveway

The BRS and BR3 continue to entertain my Favorite Panamanian as she nears the end of her sojourn as the live-in abuela up in New Hampshire. I’ll retrieve her on Saturday to decisively end my latest period of geographic bachelorhood. It’s obvious the BRS has been paying attention to her abuela because the ABFA sent me this video where the BRS is assiduously cleaning her play kitchen. My wife, I’m sure, has been cleaning non-stop since her arrival. She can’t help herself. (Note to self – get to work cleaning our kitchen before she gets back). A very welcome development has been the BRS’ reaction to my calls, she now runs to the video screen while yelling, “”Hi Grandpa!” enthusiastically. It falls into the heart melting department.

BRS on her New Playground

Keeps Telling Abuela to Push Harder

Meanwhile BR3 Sleeps a Lot

ABFA Doing Double Mom Duty

Meanwhile in New Jersey the FBR has been out in her back yard as Wingman continues his back yard renovation projects. My daughter continues to do the work of three employees that were covid furloughed along with her own responsibilities. I’m a little proud of that gal. The FBR is not an easy get for Wingman though. He had to agree to move her drawing table and chair out into the back yard before she agreed to allow him out there, that and acquiring a pet worm which she magnanimously returned to the wild; because, Grandpa, that’s where they belong. They also set up their new pool which, with the steamy weather, was most welcome.

FBR Set up in Backyard

With her Pet

The New Pool

Definitely a Step Up

Best Way to Defeat Humidity

Helping Wingman Out

One of the first things the FBR asks during out nightly calls is to see the progress I’m making on my latest jigsaw puzzle. It’s a passion we share. She was immensely pleased last night to see I had completed the latest puzzle only to immediately point out there was one piece missing! This has happened a number of times over the past couple years and I’m convinced this time that I’m innocent, that the newly opened puzzle arrived missing that one piece. It’s why I was under my bed with a flashlight trying to see if it had somehow been transported two floors up in the cuff of my pants or something else. I’ve also only got one movie left in my Indiana Jones serial watch, Star Trek movies are up next.

The Puzzle

The Piece

Movie Progress

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BR3 – granddaughter #3, BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in Brooklyn