We've finally accomplished something! The rock has been installed in the back yard and it looks really nice. I think going to get the rock was much worse than actually shoveling and placing it. Traffic was such a pain in the butt late on Saturday morning. Tom drove the Mazda pulling our little trailer and I drove Tom's Dad's truck. Now, recently I filled out an email questionnaire in which there was the question: Do you drive stick? My answer was yes, and that I miss it. Apparently I lied. I do not miss driving stick. At all.
Dad's truck is stick and I had forgotten how much work it is, shifting and clutching and stuff. Put the drink down, shift, put the phone down, shift. Don't get me wrong, I'm not generally that distracted while I'm driving, but I just hadn't experienced that in over 15 months and it was really irritating. In addition to the whole stick thing, the little truck is rather slow to get moving and it seemed that I was constantly ending up behind someone who didn't quite want to drive the speed limit. Tom was following me and while he pretty much knew where we were going, I still didn't want to lose him at a light or something. So I was nearly out of my mind by the time we got to Landscape Depot.
And then! The sales guys had repeatedly warned about not overloading the truck and had me really worried about the weight of the rock and how to get it home. Well, the guy loading the rock (with a front-end loader) insisted that it would all fit in the trailer, wouldn't be too heavy, etc. And he was right. Didn't even press down on the trailer tongue. The Mazda pulled the load like it was nothing and I drove that miserable truck all the way to Rockledge and back for no reason whatsoever.
Shoveling the rock though, wasn't exactly fun and my back is still a little sore from the experience. Tom dug out for some stepping stones leading to the hose and I placed a square stone for the yard trash container to sit on. Ta da!
We still plan on digging out the old white rock on the west side of the house around the AC unit and the pump. But we can wait until after our biking trip for that. And now we know that we can get a bucketful of rock in the trailer and I won't ever have to drive that truck again.
Here's the little green dump cart we bought since our wheelbarrow rusted out. Cute, isn't it? It will be handy for carting my various yard tools and stuff around when I'm doing yard work.
And this is Tom's bicycle workshop. That's my mountain bike, the white one on the bottom. And check out the beautiful palms on the left. They used to be in the front yard, on either side of the entryway, until they started getting too big. Tom dug a hole and threw them in, not even caring if they made it, but they have certainly thrived! Check out how the curbing is beginning to discolor already. That's the next project. Also, does anyone know how to get those shingles clean? Tom sprayed the workshop roof with a mixture of bleach and water, but it didn't really work.
Sadly, that was the weekend highlight. Saturday afternoon we were both too exhausted to do anything much. Plus, I started getting a sore throat in the evening that I still have today. I felt miserable most of Sunday and didn't get to ride my bicycle or play tennis or do anything fun.
And Jenn? This is not Netflix… Don't bother watching your mailbox for that DVD.