When Fantasy Becomes Reality

Get your mind outta the gutter. It's Sunday, and it's not an x-rated blog!

I was moving slow all day Saturday. It took a lot to get me going and a lot to keep me going. Somehow, I think today is going to be even tougher. I didn’t take my planned day off on Friday and I stayed up late to boot, so I didn’t get off to the greatest start.

It seems like half the neighborhood came over to look at the porch. That was very gratifying, interrupting, but gratifying. People I knew – and some I didn’t – were going by and pointing or waving. Now that they can see what I'm doing, maybe I don't seem as nuts anymore. My neighbor says his porch "is next."

One of my bus drivers was working and she drove by and gave me a thumb’s up.
I can say that the first part of the porch is officially done. I mortared in everything I had down and put in a final piece on the transition step that will hold the mortar in place underneath the front door. And that, was that.

I only got a few additional rows on the second part of the porch done, but since it’s so much smaller than the first, it actually looks like progress. All of those rows also got mortared into place. (Pictures tonight. It was too dark by the time I wrapped up and the porch light throws everything off.)

The timing of the shrub removal is perfect. That will make it SO much easier to put the next round of perimeter bricks in. And, since I next go to the sidewalk project, better to have a truck going through the yard now rather than after the walkway is in progress, or worse yet, done.

I’m still just about giddy thinking about the prospect of those evil shrubs being gone. They have been here for about 20 years and my dealings with them during all that time have been nothing but miserable. I seriously have fantasized about having them plucked out.

Seriously. And now, it’s about to enter the realm of reality.

Pinch me.

Now maybe I can work on that Powerball fantasy ...