Posts Tagged ‘road construction’
Under Construction
One phrase that has stuck with me since I first encountered it on an elementary school classroom bulletin board is, “In like a lamb, out like a lion,” in reference to the month of March. Well, the second-to-last day of March was downright summer-like and way more lamb than lion by every measure. Today looks reasonably sane for the last day of the month, though not nearly as warm. Tomorrow, April looks like it will be coming in like a penguin.
I am happy to report that we landed a first-of-the-day service appointment for our furnace, and the problem was diagnosed quickly. How many Technicians have said, “Blown capacitor” in their careers? Yeah, and this particular capacitor only costs $250.
Thank goodness they elected to waive the labor and service visit fees, since it was so close to the recent annual checkup appointment. That would have doubled the expense. Oof.
Good thing nothing else is getting expensive in our economy.
Monday morning at the barn with the horses was a different experience yesterday. The first official day of road closures for a construction project on the main highway just north of Elsworth appears to have kicked a fair number of morning commuters onto our road as an alternative route. Oh joy.
The project schedule indicates completion by late September. I hope most folks will have figured out a more preferable option than our road in short order. Drivers in a hurry to get to work are a real buzz-kill on the usual serenity that defines life here.
World Labyrinth Day is just over a month away. At least it happens on a Saturday, so commuters should be less of an issue. It would be nice if our “walk as one at 1:00” for peace were able to happen in peace. Start planning now and save May 2nd to join us on the first Saturday in May.
It’ll be an easy date to remember. It’s the day after the planned Nationwide General Strike and the same day as the Kentucky Derby run for the roses. Pausing in the middle of the day to meditate on peace in the world is like having a cool drink of water when you are hot and exhausted.
A warm and sunny day would be a bonus, but that feature is a tough one to guarantee. I don’t want to seem greedy, so I will merely be seeking a dry day with no snow anywhere in sight.
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Culvert Replacement
While we have been busy tending to multiple maintenance projects on our buildings, the Township in which we reside has been preparing to replace the drainage culverts beneath our street. Yesterday just happened to be the day the work started.
Once they got underway, there was only one option available exiting our driveway. Our route south was closed for the day.
I have no idea how they measure the need for replacing culverts, but there is plenty of evidence that our street is deserving of resurfacing. I am hoping the culvert work is simply a matter of taking care of things below ground before upgrading the surface above.
The road crew guys are never timid about flaunting their command of the right-of-way footage. They didn’t hold back at all in their reshaping of the landscape area immediately beyond the culvert where it opened up on our side of the road. I think it deserves to have some rock added there, but since they never have included that in the past, I’m suspecting they won’t again this time.
It would be great if they could toss some grass seed over the area I mow and replace the gravel where the entrance to our hayfield gate is located. I don’t know whether I have any say in how it is finished, or not. Maybe if I tell them I am a descendent of three important Pierce County families of 150 years ago it could give me a little extra clout.
Of course, when they are on location, I am 65-miles to the west at the day-job, so there isn’t much chance we’ll talk.
Cyndie is up at the lake this week, so I’ll just have to settle with whatever the road crew sees fit to do.
It is their right-of-way after all. I trust they know what they are doing.
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Seriously Tired
I gotta tell you, this not-working-at-the-day-job thing is incredibly exhausting. Between the shortage of sleep every night and the mixture of home chores and lake place entertainment, I am operating under the influence of some serious tired.
Our departure from home yesterday was late enough that I had a chance to finish all the fence trimming I needed to do before we left. The drive up seemed more laborious than necessary due to several traffic hindering repaving projects underway. We ran into a section where the highway crew had laid down oil on the existing surface in preparation of whatever the next step was going to be, and they then directed traffic to drive on it. What choice do you have at that point?
Shortly after that, we met congestion created by workers painting the lines down the center and shoulders of the new asphalt. It seemed as though we were slowing down as soon as we accelerated out of a previous delay.
With little hesitation after arriving to Wildwood, we donned our swimwear and made our way down to the beach. One sure-fire way to reach serious tired is playing a game of “Last person standing” on the floating RAVE Sports Water-Whoosh. You can’t touch the other competitors as you do everything possible, beyond touching, to knock the other participants down.
Much of the exhaustion comes as a result of the non-stop laughter induced by the game. The rest of the exhaustion is caused by needing to repeatedly climb back up on top of the floating platform. Cyndie captured some fun shots of young Marco and me in action:
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It is a good thing that I am away from home for a couple of days, so I can rest. NOT!
Having a blast can be a lot of work, you know.
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Relative Something 