Sisyphus
Posted: October 11, 2012 Filed under: bitching, douchebaggery 5 Comments
OK, so a while ago a water pipe buried in our yard burst. It was right next to our tomato patch, so we tore out the tomato plants and harvested a lot of green tomatoes before the water company came in with their earth moving equipment and destroyed the tomatoes.
The water company fixed the pipe, but, in the process, the good soil of the tomato patch was dug up and replaced with clay and gravel. Since Annie wanted to have tomatoes there next year, she had me dig out a 10×10 foot square, 6 to 8 inches deep, out of the clay and gravel. This was a surprisingly large amount of digging (I moved 12-15 wheelbarrowloads of clay and gravel). She was going to order a truckload of topsoil and we would till in some compost and let it sit over the winter so it would be ready to go for next year.
In the mean time, the water company had left a ‘warning sign’ near where they had fixed the pipe. Annie wanted to get rid of it, so I called up the water company and told them to come back and take it away.
Annie just called me. While she was out today, the water company came by and filled my hole up with more clay and gravel and tamped it down. Then they took off, leaving her a note saying that they had come by and ‘taken care’ of that hole in the front yard. And they left the warning sign.
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| The scene of the crime (pre excavation) |
Thats our government/union jobs “hard” at work.
I'd say it's a potential cost of being more self-sufficient, or stand-out in some other way, that when someone does a good deed there's less chance you need it, and more rarely it might even set you back.
Have you ever seen the UK TV series One Foot in the Grave? You could probably find some videos on YouTube. I'm not suggesting you're at all like the main character of course, only that this could be a plot point. I get the impression you're more sanguine, and younger, and looking on the bright side even here.
Holy cow, you just stumbled onto a source free fill dirt! I vote you see how many loads of free fill you can get from the city. Bulid a raised bed and maybe you can start a nice pokeberry patch in it, that stuff will grow anywhere. 🙂
I guess you know how fond I am of pokeberries, but Annie is paranoid about 'free fill dirt' because there are a lot of places in the Detroit area with dioxin contamination… which was the first thing she said to me, “They brought in dirt and filled in your hole… do you think the dirt is contaminated?” However, I've decided to just build a raised bed so Annie can grow tomatoes there again next year — this spot is the perfect mix of sun and shade; the tomatoes do very vell… unlike in the other garden, where the tomatoes always get blight.
Porky: “I'm thinking of compiling a reference guide… something to do in the years ahead… call it, “The Observer's Guide to crap found on the front lawn.”