Day One Hundred Forty Three 2011

I've been waiting two years for this sight. Public works people began paving my street this afternoon. They tore it up moving water meters off the sidewalks and into the yards, digging up huge holes in the street. The holes were patched, leaving us with an ugly, bumpy road, and sad to say, that's how most of the roads are in our hilly little town. Good things come to those who wait, the saying goes. Must be true. Woo Hoo!

Day Two Hundred Seventeen

Public Works Saves The Sidewalk Hand Prints


In my opinion, these city employees went above and beyond the job description to save the childhood hand prints of my two daughters who each pressed one small hand into cement that was freshly poured probably twenty years ago.

The concrete was about three inches thick. They started with this big circular saw and were really careful cutting around the prints.

Then they brought in the jackhammer to help dig underneath to loosen it up. At this point, I figured Here we go, it's gonna crack into a thousand pieces.

It didn't crack at all. This is the hole that was left after they extracted the cut out prints I'm happy to say in one solid piece.

I know you can't see the hand prints in this picture. They're covered with cement dust, but they are still there after a couple of decades, and I'm very happy to have this memento of my kids' childhood. I'm also very thankful to the guys who took the time to do this for me. They didn't have to. I'm still amazed they remembered I had asked about having this done almost two weeks ago.

By tomorrow, they'll be tearing up the sidewalks in front of our house and later on pouring another round of fresh cement. I'll miss our old bumpy sidewalks, like I miss our old wavy glass windows in our house. But I'll get over it. I'm hoping the grand kids will be here the day they pour the cement so we can begin a whole new generation of sidewalk hand prints.

Every neighborhood deserves a sidewalk.

Day Two Hundred Ten

Progress.....

This is not a pretty picture. I heard them coming two days ago--their back hoes and bulldozers and other weapons of mass destruction. And I hoped it was just something they were sent to fix at one residence along our old street. But they kept on coming and today they landed in front of my house and spent the afternoon digging up the street, the sidewalk and the front yard. As it turns out, they are moving all the water meters off the sidewalk and into the yards of each residence. I'm still not clear on why this must be done. The guy in charge assured me they'd replace the pavement and the sidewalks and the grass in the front yard. Something it seems we already had until they tore it all up just to move a water meter three feet. That's progress, folks.