i told my mortgage company, on numerous occasions, that we saw no damage from hurricane harvey…
…which is only partially true.
we didn’t get any damage per say because we didn’t get any NEW damage, we just aggravated some of my domicile’s “previous conditions”. so the roof leaked, including in spots where i’d “fixed” it, but it always does. and the fence leaned it bit more, but it was leaning before. the problem is pitbulls scare your neighbors regardless of how lovable they are and they tend to be escape artists (ask shane) so while budnik is so daddy loyal he ain’t going ANYWHERE gypsy misses the front yard that she had to herself for all those month her paw was healing…
…can’t blame a girl for trying to go back to the old neighborhood, i suppose.
the problem was we had two spots on the fence that were “weak links” (one more so than the other) so when various tree trimming projects and harvey winds had brought a branch or two to the ground brush piles were made at either end of the yard – obscuring the view of said fence areas so pups would get out unseen for the first couple of minutes.
(and they can cover some ground in only a couple minutes)
so before i had to shoot my neighbors for shooting one of them something needed to be done. one side was easy – it was just a (as in singular) board). the other was a bit more labor intensive, because a whole eight foot section was down INCLUDING the post. sinking a fence post in texas soil is a labor of love AND pain (kinda like dating a white girl in her 20’s) but when measured it was 11.5 feet post to post. they twelve foot 2x4s. game on!
the problem was i like to take advantage of shit. ask kramer – i rarely go see him when he’s in austin on tuesdays because it’s by day off. not that i don’t like hanging out with the guy, but when you make that commute (and then some) five days a week a day or two off is nice. likewise, with a twelve foot section of fence coming down the “i can’t bitch branches over the fence lest if collapse” excuse is off the table because i was ripping it down in the first place. this turned a hump day project into three:
1. pull down and rebuild the fence
2. move the two giant brush piles to the curb
3. clean up all the large tree shrapnel throughout the yard
well all three got done today AND i still had it in me to make leftover thanksgiving turkey quesadillas for the family for dinner…but i am SO the worse for wear. my knee hurts (on the back side – what the fuck?). my back hurts. i have a feeling i will feel this the next couple of days, which is my fault for getting into “machine mode”. for me that’s when i get into a project to the point where i keep going, no matter what. my knee started to get funky after the first brush pile. i could have stopped and just built the fence, which required almost no walking. but instead i had to keep going because i was in machine mode. now it’s ten something and i’m hobbling a bit – can’t wait to see what tomorrow morning will bring!