Trenches Mean Trouble

When I got home last night, I didn’t even get my jacket unzipped before the mother said: “Go look out back.” Her tone was neutral, maybe a twinge of ominous, so I wasn’t sure whether I would like what I was going to see or not.

The funny thing was, I could barely see anything at all – until she yelled, “Isn’t that just horrible that their yard is all dug up that way? Remember when ours was like that?”

I peered harder out the kitchen window and saw that indeed my neighbors’ yard was dug up. Since it was already so dark out,I didn’t appreciate the whole effect until the light of day this morning. As I drove past on my way to work, I saw the skinny trench in progress. Ugh.

Wow! I think they’re replacing their sewer line. I seem to recall them having sewage back up into their washing machine a few weeks back. They had a guy over there working on it and I thought whatever he did at that time had solved it. I guess not.

For us, this was 20+ years ago and it was the water line. Remember my dear cuz, Dago Joe, who helped get rid of my sidewalk debris and took down my old fence? Well, he took me to rent a trencher and we dug the back yard up using it and spades at one point in cold, pouring rain. It was a day in hell to be sure so I’m not likely to have forgotten about it!

Then Joe laid the line and drilled into the basement wall to connect it up. Once all that was done, I filled in and patched the wall. (I did a sucky job of it, too. Of course, then I really didn’t know any better.)

Yeah, I feel bad for my neighbors. I’m just glad it’s not us because I sure don’t relish doing that job again ever, much less any time soon.