For the first time in a long time I did not wake up and instantly start
scouring the various job postings on the world wide web. As a matter of fact, I
got up… put on whatever rags I have that are passing for clothing and just
lounged on the couch for a good hour and a half. Why did I do that? Because I
could. No other reason. I just could.
This, of course, got cut short by a horrible realization: There is still
stuff to do! Any time you think that you don’t have to do anything at all you
will undoubtedly make a self-realization about all the things you have neglected
to do for quite some time. Here is one of those dilemmas.
When we first moved in to our house the backyard was near perfect. We had a
patio with cover, full landscaping, and fancy cement walkways bordered by red
brick. The only thing that needed to be done was to have some cement poured into
a square area that would be the "dog run." Dog run is a really nice way of
saying the place I’ll lock the dogs during the day while we are gone. They won’t
be doing any running but they will have plenty of space and everything they need
so life for them should be good. There was even a gate that just needed to be
re-hung and life would be grand.
Now, being the dreamer that I am I imagine continuing the nice brick bordered
walkway pattern down to the big square area where the dog run will be to keep
things pretty. So, I get a contractor to come in and lay down the cement for the
dog run so that the area would be nice and pet friendly, leaving a dirt
area 14 feet long by six feet wide between the dog run and the walkways. We’ll
just glaze over the fact that the contractor dumped all the excess dirt from
digging out the area for concrete in this same area (even though he was told not
to).
A week after he is done I regret very deeply not having had him do the entire
area since I know I do not have the discipline or the attention span to continue
the pretty bordered walkway. I know I now have a very large area to fill in.
Around the same time I see this fancy mold that you mix cement to pour in to to
make very nice decorative
European style walkways/stepping stones. Perfect! Get
it!
Fast-forward to today when I am sitting on the couch, hand in my waist band
and watching Springer. My new hours are going to have me home hours after my
lovely wife Denise. She is going to have to let the dogs out of the dog run.
Should it rain, she will have to walk through mud. She will have to walk through
mud that she shouldn’t have to because I’ve had a mold that I could have started
sculpting a walkway out of six months ago… SHIT!
So, needless to say I spent an hour and a half digging in the back yard. Even
though the dirt was only put there a short time ago it has settled quite well
thanks to the foot traffic my loving animals have provided (hell, some of it was
like trying to dig up rock). Oh yeah, there’s also a thick layer of concrete
slop that the contractor obviously spilled out there that I still have to get
through.
Let’s face it, I should get used to the grief now because there is no way a
walkway is going in before I start working on Monday. I’m just plain screwed.
-WW