not night paving
or when the daily chores (and in this case yearly) that are seemingly insignificant give you a lovely personal nudge that lets’ you know there is indeed light at the end of that tunnel.
Can you sense that this is going to be one of those roundabout stories. I do.
So every year we have to have the gravel drive redone. Sometimes it is a big deal because of weather and delivery trucks and all sorts of other drive related incidents. Our biggest issue out here in rural Pacific Northwest is water and absorption; as in how fast it falls from the sky and how quickly the soil clay can soak it in. Really wet all the time causes all kinds of issues with seepage, drainage, leakage.. .You name the water related “age” problem and we have it. So little time, oh and gravel.
Anyway Friday was the day the wonderfully helpful Mr. Smith (I kid you not look at the side of the truck) came to gravel and grade the driveway, parking and to add another bed to put a second storage pod. Yep you heard right. Storage pod number two or as I like to think of it as tina’s stash hotel annex. Where stash obviously checks in but does not check out.
Hey you know what? (and I just can’t believe I have not thought of this before) We should have a contest to name the hotels pods. We will revisit this later.
Remind me ok?
I knew this was happening but as most of you know I am not in the best place for remembering this kind of daily ? hmmm daily what ? oh, I know daily anything. Seriously.
So when I went to walk out to the barn on Friday morning to say hi to everyone I was met with this:
Usually it is just my highlander sitting there and the barn girls cars are on other side of drive in designated parking area. It is always like that right? Well not on Friday morning . When I opened the sliding glass door and looked up all of their cars were parked either behind me or on the side. I was surrounded. Ok… got it my car was surrounded. You know what I mean. Going for a little life metaphor here.
I stop and wonder and then go on my merry way to the barn. It still has not quite dawned on me what the hell is going on. As I walk on and sip my coffee and shake my head ( the shaking sometimes helps where the coffee has not quite kicked it yet) I turn and glance back just to make sure I was not seeing things.
Nope. I was not.
Do you see it? I am (if I am indeed a lovely silver Toyota Highlander and obviously I am) lovingly surrounded, protected held by those that love me. Well… at least that is what I saw.
I finally reach the barn and walk in smiling to myself and shaking my head. As I close the door I realize that they are all smiling and giggling and it was just one of the best moments. It wasn’t just me, they got it too. As each and eveyone of them pulled up they did. Sigh.
The outpouring of love and support has just been so wonderful. My inbox is loaded, there are phone messages and comments and mail all filled with love and support.
The car scene just was too much. Just in case I had not gotten it, and I so had, here it was in a lovely real life way. I nice visual nudge and you know how much I like visuals.
Heart happiness.
Along with the warm loving moment and reminder we are now paved a bit better, have room for pod 2 the sequel and look, cockeyed now has very own parking spot. It’s a mini spot. hehehe too funny.
I have a bit of a confession for those who do not know this about me. I have a thing for power equipment of any kind and the bigger the better. ( sorry) I can’t even talk about how I feel about the back hoe. Mr. Smith usually comes with a tractor that I lust after maybe a little bit and other various machinery that you need to get the job done. This time…this time he brought this deceptive unobtrusive little thing (don’t know it’s name). You know what it does? it flattens things. Like into the ground. I’m going to call it “ smasher”. I want one. The barn girls said no.
I wonder why?
Side note: When they do roadwork at night in Portland that involves paving they put up big signs that say “Night Paving”. I think this is funny as hell and slightly suggestive. I tortured Steph with it all last summer. They were paving Hwy 30 which is the quickest road from bmfa to the Convention Center and downtown Portland.
I still think it is funny. I might be the only one though.
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I think I’d want a ‘smasher’, too! Yes, you are indeed surrounded!
There is light at the end of your tunnel and a rainbow and a pot of gold! You will endure a few storms but you will have lots of light. I think you have wonderful friends and co-workers to steady you during the storms.
I think road signs are very funny too, for years it was “men at work” and I always drove by when they were always leaning on their shovels, after I laughed my poor sons would hear their mother drone on and on about wanting one of those jobs to help pay for college and being told they didn’t hire women, I didn’t find that funny at all. The other one that always makes me laugh is” bump,” Usually there isn’t one or when there is you see the sign after you have passed over the bump. Hmm maybe a few more metaphors.
I love the car hug. Sometimes the smallest gestures make the biggest impact. What wonderful people you get to work with everyday.
Do you know what amazed me the most about that picture? The first thing I noticed is that there is NO SNOW and the grass is even partly green. Somehow I’d always imagined that your elevation was high enough that your precipitation during the winter was white. Does it really just rain all winter? No wonder you go to the barn to produce rainbows. You certainly NEED them. May your rainbows all end with fabulous pots of gold. Holding you in my thoughts and prayers, Tina. Cheers and red wine, Hazel.
Night Paving … you are a cheeky one! ;o) I’m glad you have these lovely people in your life, even if they won’t let you get a new toy. I would, if you’d share it with me!
hehehe
hehehe
ps. dont know about the pod names but i want to come to the spray painting party…
In Britain they have a sign that says Hump Ahead. I giggle so much that I nearly crash the car every time I see it.
You have a wonderful crew up there, even their cars hug you.
Best wishes
Susan
I love the smasher!!! I would have thought it was bigger, but that looks like I can keep it outside in a shed
Do you think you can use the smasher to smash/fit more yarn into boxes to fit inside the hotels?
Well I’d let you have a smasher.
So glad that they are surrounding you with love up there!! I just don’t understand why they won’t let you have a smasher
Big hugs!! Two pods!!! Can’t wait!!!
It’s just a compactor. Not as exciting as one of the big rollers, but just as noisy. It used to crack me up watching a construction worker use either a jack hammer or the compactor & try to light a smoke at the same time.
It’s so nice for all the lovely Blue Moon ladies to give you lots of vehicular hugs.
Hey, that looks like my Uncle Rick! Couldn’t quite make out the name on the truck, but it’s a small world and he lives in Warren.
It’s a “compactor” and I’ve wanted one since I had my patio put in a dozen years ago. So many things I could think of to smoosh…
On an entirely different note, one of the maintenance guys at work has a sign that says “plunger man at work.” He puts it on the bathroom door when he’s in there doing maintenance stuff. I want to steal it.
Car hugs – love it!
Smasher, spray paint party, car hugs and special spots just for Mini’s. I also just realized that there is no snow in those recent pictures. We’re getting more white stuff right now. Sure improves on the dirty stuff revealed by this weekend’s rain. My vote is for yellow in my mailbox next week. Still 3 1/2 kits from up to date but plan on that changing over the next month or so.
I’d let you have the smasher but I don’t think it would be good for your garden.
I want to come to the pod painting/naming party.
Max would fit nicely in that spot when Debbie isn’t there.
Give everyone a hug for me so you get a lot of them back.
Hugs, Alice
We used a compactor last summer before I laid 300 sq ft of paving stones..who knew that the muscles in your butt would complain? LOL
Tina, it is lovely to see that you have a wonderful group of friends caring for you..I am a little envious really.
Wish we had some of that green grass…instead we had freezing rain all weekend and today have a bit more snow..about 6 more inches of fresh on the ground overnight. I think that we’ll make this a knitting day.
Love the new colours and will be ordering shortly.
Looked over the new colours and have decided I’m going to have to try the shaded solids. There were some glorious ones in yellow tones-more than one in fact. I guess though I’d better wait until I see what lands in my mailbox in 10 days or so(hate the long border crossing). We had freezing rain in Sudbury on Monday-worth your life to try to walk anywhere. Thank goodness it’s snowing today-so much prettier. Cheers and red wine, Hazel.
oh, you should SO buy a real stash hotel; the farm country of scapoose won’t be complete without one.
i’m sure someone quicker than me has already told you that the machine is a tamper. yes, that could be so useful for getting water out of yarn. there, did i justify you getting one, just a little?
There’s a Humptulips Indian reservation in Western Washington, and a sign outside the town of Edna in the Jackson prairie, that says “Entering Edna”. I couldn’t stop giggling.
I love the “car hugs”. So sweet! Wish I was back in Seattle so I could be closer to Scapoose and give you a real live hug.
Love the car hugs:). You definitely have one of the best set of friends working for you. I have a proposal for you: Don’t buy a second pod and I will take all of that extra you don’t have room to store:) oh yeah and I think you should be able to have a smasher.