B-R-R

That’s what Mom used to say; she’d spell it – B,R,R….brrrrr. It’s very cold here today. It was 14 F this morning and only reached 20 today, but that was actually ok with me because it was my day to be home, vegetate, do some laundry of my own, and definitely take a long overdue blog walk as I’m sure you’ve seen by now.

This past week, (16 days really) has been busy with sitting with my friend, Lee, still in the hospital and also running errands for her and for myself.  After that long in the hospital, she had bills that were coming due, plants to be watered, clothes to be laundered, hair to be done (or as well as it could be), and calls to be made.  Very busy time.  This coming week she is scheduled for another bone marrow test so I doubt she’ll be home anytime soon.  Besides, if you saw her, you’d know that she’s not able to take care of herself yet anyway.  Her legs were 3 times their regular size and there were beginning lesions opening up.  Then on top of that, biopsies were done and she had severe reactions to that, too.  I’ve never felt so badly for someone.  It’s been a lot of pain for her and she’s still on morphine.  To give you an idea of the swelling, when she entered the hospital, she weighed 130 lbs.  Since there, she only eats like a bird, and then yesterday weighed 163 lbs.  They have now started her on a diuretic, thank goodness, and it’s starting to work.  Seeing 33 lbs extra on 2 legs is some sight. Scary.

A week ago, I was getting up at the crack of dawn, looked out of the window and saw this HUGE sink hole in the middle of the road.  Now this happened a few days after the first incidence of losing water to my house. Sheesh, I still have to back up to explain this.  Last year, there was a geyser of a water spout rising from the road just across the street. Everyone lost their water service.  The road was dug up and the pipes replaced due to age.  So now it’s another year gone by.  Same spot, new geyser.  The county trucks were back out but this time I was the only one without water.  The digging began.  First they found that the other repair was done with plastic pipes instead of copper.  A redo was in order. Because of this 2nd break, the line running to my house broke at the water meter.  The next sight I saw was my yard being dug up to replace everything with copper there as well.  Listen, I know this had to be done, but lordy, I’d just resodded my yard all by myself last Spring, and now it’s dug up clay.   Here’s where they were digging:

Notice how close they are to that pine tree.  They cut right into the roots of it and I’ll bet in another year that tree will die. Glad I took pictures.  See the roots below? (You can always click to enlarge) :

So, repairs were done and I had my water back about 12 hours later.  I also had a dug up yard. All they did was semi-smooth the clay over that side of my yard.  Gee, thanks.

A few days ago, I was getting up early again and glanced out the window (now we’re back to the present).  There in the middle of the street was this HUGE sink hole in the middle of the road. Even a new little geyser had begun across the street.  Now this sink hole was about 3 ft deep and 5 ft across.  The county trucks show up again and the digging begins.  In fact, the digging started at that hole, ran the length of my house, the next house and all the way to the highway.  They don’t even know what caused it.  They dug and dug and filled and filled:

I didn’t even bother going out to take pictures of them digging all the way down the street, and it didn’t matter.  You know why? After ALL that work and ripping up the street and refilling everything, they left, and 2 hours later they were back --- because the entire thing caved in again.  It was like the twilight zone.  Again, they didn’t know why, and again all the repairs started over. As of today, the road hasn’t sunk for the 3rd time but we are holding our breaths.  You should see all of the neighbors and myself skirting around the middle of the road.  I heard my 80+ neighbor say they were afraid the darn road was going to swallow them up.  I look at the whole thing from a different angle – and here’s my mean side.  Our street has been used as a cut through for the last year and cars will come flying down the road.  Good golly, we have kids and pets here! The county even put speed bumps in but that didn’t stop the huge amount of traffic and some still speeding their heads off.  So here’s what I hope, and I don’t care how mean it sounds. I hope that one of those speeding cut-throughers has the fortune to ride right over that spot just as the road collapses.  It would serve them right. Up until now, I’ve waited for those folks with my camera and a pad of paper.  Just when they get close, I’ve been running out to the side of the road, lifting my camera like I’m taking a picture of them, pointing with my finger to their face and then looking like I’m writing it all down.  Well, I can say it’s kept a few off the road but not enough.  Wow, this turned into a rant and it’s not even Wednesday.  I need to calm down.  Hey, Arlene, bring over that glass of Bailey’s.  I’ll make the next blog walk in spurts as I can.  I never like getting behind and missing out on what’s going on in your neck of the woods.  Be good, be careful, be loving.  

XOXOXO