Another trip into Texas yesterday. This time it was to have my regular blood
test done. About every three months,
sometimes sooner, I have to check and make sure the arthritis medication I take
is not eating away my liver or kidneys.
Thankfully, a Quest location has opened up in LaMarque so I don’t have
to drive into Houston to get it done.
You would think they would have an office somewhere nearer to UTMB. I guess they want to do their own blood
tests, though. Give those rookie doctors
something else to do.
On the way home we stopped at Home
Depot. Our target this time was
dirt. Yep. Just dirt.
See, we have a sinkhole in our back yard and I have been wanting to take
steps to fill it in for a long time. Way
back before Hurricane Ike we had a huge pecan tree in our back yard. The tree did its best to survive the storm
itself and the salt water flood that accompanied it. It even put out some leaves the following
year. But alas, it was just not to
be. We nursed it along as long as we
could, but it finally died. We had one
of those tree cutting down specialists remove it for us. He also ran his machine that grinds up the
stump into mulch. But the machine could
only access so much. Those huge roots
remained. And now they and what remains
of the stump itself are slowly rotting away, disintegrating into nothingness
and leaving behind gaping holes. And
when those holes collapse under the weight of grandchildren playing or old
dudes mowing the grass, the result is a sinkhole. The big problem now is that it is slowly
creeping under the paving stones we used to create our patio. Can’t have an uneven surface when there are toddlers
and senior adults afoot.
So to Home Depot we went to buy some
dirt. Ten bags of dirt to be exact. Surely that would be enough, right? I pulled up twelve or fifteen of the paving
stones and segmented out the area of grass under which the stump used to
be. Had to at least save the good St.
Augustine that was growing there. I opened
up the dirt bags and dumped them in. And
then came the hard part. Well, that’s
not completely accurate. By that time I was
already exhausted. But I was determined
to push on. After all, I did way more
that this when we created the patio. And
that was a mere, oh, eighteen years or so ago.
How bad could it be? Chris
cheered me on by texting Nathan and letting him know I was in the back yard
digging a hole. Guess she wanted him to
be on call in case I developed some “exercise-induced heartburn.” I assured her that the guys at station four
would take care of me. She didn’t seem
too excited at either prospect.
The next step was mixing the new dirt with
the existing dirt and then came the leveling process. I don’t know any other way to do that than to
plop down in the dirt and do it one stone at a time. Time consuming and back-breaking
process. By the time the patio was
shored up, I looked over at the hole in the grassy area and sighed. We probably should have bought another ten
bags. I decided to make the best of it,
though. I leveled it out the best I could
and dropped the sod chunks back into place.
I managed to drag the shovels back into the
shed before collapsing onto a chair to enjoy the fruit of my labor by having a cup
of water and a chat with my esteemed supervisor, Chris, who, I might add, had
sat outside with me through the entire process, wrapped in a blanket and
encouraging me. Best part of the whole
project. Now if the whole thing doesn’t collapse into itself when the rain
starts today I’ll be happy. And yes, I am
pretty sore today. No marathons or
tri-athalons on tap.
Psalms 9:10 says, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never
forsaken those who seek you.”
Father, thank you for the rain. And for holding it off until I got that hole
filled up. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment