Turned out they wanted us to pull the fenceposts, too. I don’t think we’d have had it in us. We’re exhausted. And of course it turns cold, and we get a 25 mph gust with promise of rain…as they’re setting the concrete.
We turned out to have to move 3 large peonies that are in bud. Sigh. They won’t like that.
And we’ve collected a stray yellow dog, and a good thing Jane understands dogs. She got his collar and has dropped a notice on his owner’s phone as to where he is. He’s new in the neighborhood. And chewed through his tie and joined us to find out what all the jackhammering is about. Unfortunately we live on a major street, and it’s dangerous for him to run loose. We’ve tied him up to await his owner. [Cats I can figure. Dogs are a bit of a mystery to me. But he’s a nice and somewhat worried dog, and trying to be a good fellow.]
The skies have cleared now…we didn’t get the eclipse last night because of the cloud. But here’s hoping it warms a bit…for one thing, to help the concrete set.
I had to go to Home Depot to pick up the fencing because I couldn’t find the receipt to give to the fence guy for him to do it…they bring it out with a forklift with a guy with flags, right down the aisle. And thanks to a huge flatbed trailer, we got here ok. I sure couldn’t have hauled even one piece of that in the Prius, good as its cargo area is.
It’s 2:30 and they almost have the west side done…which is the short side. Hopefully, things will go faster on the east side.
Jane and have decreed no cooking tonight. We’re going out.
I’m sitting here in the house freezing, in a down coat. I get chilled, I think because I’m so over-tired, when I go out there to see how things are.
When you say “Pull the fenceposts”, does that mean they expected you to completely remove the old fence and dig up the original footers? Having removed just 1 fence post set in concrete, I say are they coo-coo? I’d be inclined to Sawzall the rotten posts flush, and tell the installers to go to town. BTW, do you have your Class 3 vehicle license? j/k
I’ve gotten to the point where I have a pig’s ear stored in my freezer in case I need to persuade a wandering doggie to let me snag their collar. At least 3 neighborhood dogs are adept at escape artistry, and sometimes end up in our yard. The cats take a very dim view of this, and know how to get onto the roof.
Have a good dinner, supplemented by a nice wine and Advil as needed.
We sawzalled some and pulled some. These are 6 foot panels as opposed to 8 foot panels. So few of the posts are in the same place.
The neighbor did come and take the doggie home.
He tried to bolt and come back to me. Go figure. I’m not the dog person. But I do have kitty-scent for perfume.
I kept thinking of the yellow dog in “Fortress of Eagles” as Tristen, Uwen, and company were leaving Guellesar and heading for Amefin……
They didn’t get quite finished with the posts. Got the holes all dug, but lining them up is a problem for experts—which I’m very glad we have. We’d have had to reinvent the wheel without knowing all the tricks, and even the second-senior of these guys says this is a new one.
So it’s back up with the tarps, and we managed to stack all the stuff on the patio under our windows, so any pilferer will have us to contend with.
The stray dog went back to his owner…got that handled, amid all else, and we thought we might go out to eat, but we’re exhausted. We’re ordering pizza.
Line up the posts with a string line.
Or a big fancy laser level.
I wonder which is cheaper?
Heat is much more of a problem for concrete when it’s setting. It actually has to be cooled down. (When I was in grade school, our church moved to a new location, with 30 days from the closing date for the move. We had to put up a ‘temporary’ building (it lasted 50 years), and the week they poured the concrete, it was over 100 every day, with the concrete being delivered at 4pm. I understand it was setting nearly as fast as it was being poured. (BTW, some of those temperatures are still records for the dates.)
My Uncle Tito, who did construction for a living, advised keeping concrete moist as it set. He said that slower drying would give it a longer lifespan.
Oh, too true. We had – maybe still have – slides of concrete fence block manufacturing in the backyard next door. (They made enough blocks for several hundred feet of fence, from three feet to five feet high, including a set of specially-made curved blocks.)
I grew up with a sweet mama dog, though I became more of a cat person as I grew up.
But dogs tend to know who’s friendly or approachable, which could explain why both Jane and you had a buddy today. 🙂
Dogs tend to want a hew-mon who’s going to be a strong leader who knows what’s what (CJ, you impress me as that sort of person). Or they tend to want someone like Jane. — Dogs seem to like a leader who’s affectionate and mostly even-tempered, fair-minded. — Jane and you both are probably the kind who like animals and most animals like you both. I think if you were around dogs a lot, you’d pick up dogs’ body-language, their emotional lingo and their temperament. — Dogs seek to follow a good leader, generally.
Dogs also, I think, sense when a person needs a buddy, needs support, and the right sort of dog seems to want to be that buddy and support, a friend, rather than to take advantage. (In the wild, some dogs might take advantage, but it’s more to their advantage to support the whole pack, isn’t it?) — So dogs, the sensitive dogs, will go to someone who’s not necessarily the “top dog” and be a friend, which I suppose is just being a good citizen in dog-think, or may be a way of supporting the whole team (the pack). Or…I suppose it could be a rationale that the humans are the bosses, so if you support the humans, you get better status. …But mostly, I tend to think most dogs are nicer than that.
As far as dogs with kids — For the most part, I think dogs generally try to be good with kids and they can be very gentle — but — they may get tired of nonsense, if a kid plays too rough or too inconsistently or strange for dog-think rules; or, conversely, younger, bigger dogs, I think really don’t get that they can be too rambunctious for some kids, and overdo it in trying to play, which bothers the human kid and then confuses the “dog kid,” who doesn’t know why the human kid isn’t as eager to play.
…Well, it all sounded better in my head, until I started trying to justify and rationalize it. Hmm.
Dogs are definitely a different personality, as a species and as individuals, than cats. But it’s possible to get to know how they think, just as observant humans get a feel for cats or horses or such. — Something I think is, on some level, a skill most humans have, but some humans are better at, empathy or learning the “alien” body-language and thought-patterns. (Which relates to, say, Bren or Tully or Py or Hilfy, as characters who learn to be good at understanding other species’ thinking and feeling.)
If my theses there don’t particularly make a lot of sense…I’ve been up a while, and didn’t really stop to think all that through coherently.
Might be a good idea for me to hit the sack now. 🙂
Anyway, CJ, dogs may mystify you a little, but I feel sure you’d get the hang of dog-think very quickly. And apparently, your guest for the day thought you were a friendly sort, suitable for doggie-kind to be neighborly with him or her.
But then, I’ll say, I’ve always had this opinion that if a dog, cat, horse, whoever, thinks a human is a pretty decent sort, then there must be some reason worth liking that human; can’t be all bad, in other words. And conversely, if most animals don’t want to associate with a given person, well, then I’m opinionated enough to trust the animals and think they must have some good reason not to like that person. Superstition or actual character judgment, I don’t know. But it seems a fair enough assessment, IMHO.
Heh. Going to get some shut-eye, here. ‘Night, all. 🙂
Sn*w. Here in Nashua, NH, sn*w that stuck.
Oh, I didn’t know that you lived in NH, Tommie. I grew up in Durham, in the blessed days when the town and University of New Hampshire library were the same thing. The town paid for my continuous haunt, the Children’s Room, as well as the Adult Fiction Room and UNH took care of all the non-fiction… And I had free access to all books. It was Heaven on Earth and sometimes taking home 10-15 books a week.
As to the snow (more like granular hail) on Wednesday morning: yes, we got it here in the Boston area too. There were still a few handfuls in the shade on Friday morning but this morning – Saturday – is warm and back to lovely spring!
We got snow too, just north of NYC. Bummer. So ready for some warmth.