Random 5 for April 10, 2022 – Flooding, disappointments, contractors, death, flowers

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This stream flooded out several roads. (Picture taken last summer when the trees were leafed out.)

The downside – Our development is surrounded by fields and meandering streams. There is a downside to meandering streams. They flood. It doesn’t affect our house, but it does affect the roads we travel. We had three inches of rain last week. I left to pick up coffee and the road over the stream was puddly. I cautiously drove through as did the car behind me. By the time I was coming home, the water was rushing and the road was closed. My development is all curvy with no logical road patterns. No square blocks. It’s filled with cul-de-sacs and dead ends. I never bothered to set up GPS in my new car because I don’t go anywhere I need it…until Friday. I had to call the beloved husband who pulled up a map and guided me through a series of attempts to get home. The first one ended up with another closed road (I told you the stream meandered!). It took me seven minutes to get to Starbucks and forty to get home. I’ve mapped out alternate routes for various closures which is something I should have done last summer. Better late than never.

Window treatment update – I wrote about my procrastination on the roman shade last week. I started it but it didn’t go well. Heavy fabric, mechanical parts not sized right, etc. I adjusted. Then readjusted. Then cut part off and made it shorter. I watched YouTube video after video until I found a simpler design that may work. I’m on plan D. As Di from pensitivity says, “if plan A doesn’t work you have the rest of the alphabet.” If this goes much past G, it will end up in the trash!

The waiting – The truth about contractors is that they never show up when they say they will. Sometimes it doesn’t matter but sometimes it does. The deck didn’t start last week. It was because of the weather but we had three good non-rainy days. Hopefully it will start this week but I’m leery. At best it’s a four day work week. I hate when I don’t have control. We are also getting a street tree planted. It really doesn’t matter when it goes in but I’d like to know. Does that make me a control freak? (That was rhetorical. No answer necessary.)

You never know – Locally a popular restaurant partner died. He was 59. He wasn’t ill. It was unexpected and sudden. Embrace every minute. Every day you wake up is a good day no matter what happens to muck it up.

It’s spring – I live across the street and next door to fabulous gardeners. When I look out, I see beautiful spring bulbs and budding trees smiling at me. My own home hasn’t had any outdoor care in many years. Not only is it not attractive but the amount of work it will take is overwhelming. I’m getting some help (I’m too old to dig and do anything but the simplest gardening tasks). Maybe by next year it will be at a better place.

So how was your week?

 

60 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 10, 2022 – Flooding, disappointments, contractors, death, flowers”

  1. I hope Plan D works for the shades and that you love them when they are done. Gardening does change somewhat as we age. Tomorrow morning when I roll out of bed, grab a robe and fuzzy slippers, make a pot of coffee, and sit down to enjoy it with my laptop, I’ll think about you traversing the neighborhood fully dressed in your car heading out to get your coffee. 🙂

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    • I was at my last attempt to get home. If it didn’t work I was going to my brother’s to wait out the flooding which wouldn’t have been quick. It took most of the day for the water to go down enough to use the road.

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  4. The flooding issue sounds like a real nuisance, but maybe you can think of it as a nature adventure. Hmmmm. And I do hope the Roman shades aren’t going to go down in defeat. I think you can do it!

    So sorry to hear about the restaurant partner’s death. Entirely too young! Very, very sad.

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  5. I wonder if all is okay with your contractor if he didn’t work on the good weather days – hopefully no setbacks in his new normal until after he’s done with the deck! I did yard cleanup Sunday afternoon and am feeling it today. Discovered all my grass was gone in the backyard – also have been seeing evidence of a bunny back there in the Winter and saw the bunny (a huge Cottontail) yesterday, but surely it didn’t eat all the grass and leave mud? It’s a small yard and has been getting sparse, but when I raked it, there was moss which came up and then a lot of mud underneath. Sigh. My boss has a family friend who son died March 22nd – he was only 27 years old and died in his sleep. He and his fiancee had a big splashy “wedding weekend” at the Breakers Hotel this December. They were living in Florida (a second house for them) – imagine her horror when she woke up.

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      • I always have used perennial rye, when spot seeding as it is supposed to be the hardiest for this reason. I have no idea what happened to it – I don’t see grubs and the front/sides are okay and already greening up. It looks terrible. There are big, old trees and they shade the area, but this is sudden, over the last two years. Yes, 27 is very young – scary. I asked the cause of death – he didn’t know. This was a huge bunny – no chance for a photo as it ran away at the speed of sound! I worried it might have made a nest under the leaves, but didn’t see anything – whew!

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  6. Meandering “natural” places to live are so much more enjoyable…but watch the low water crossings! Glad you stopped and rerouted. That’s one problem with moving – you have to find the area quirks and the work arounds.
    Hope the deck guy appears and things go smoothly. A new tree arriving/planated ( surely they will let you have some say…or explain why they put it there – other than they are tired hauling it around and plop, there is is… a tree is big and not moveable once in – they ought to ask for suggestions – just to be nice.
    Landscape/yard plantings are important. Environment affects people – but I do know how overwhelming it is to start from scratch – not sure I will be able to really revamp any “new” place myself…even spring freshening has gotten harder every year.
    Fingers crossed it all goes well and the results soothing and beautiful

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  7. Meandering streams and curvy roads! Do you live in my subdivision? I know all about your inconveniences. As for making your own window treatments, I am in awe of you for trying. Hoping you don’t get to letter ‘G’ though.

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  9. You have had a really frustrating week – I am so sorry! I hope your contractor show up and gets things done properly. Also sorry about the flooding and detours! I had a kind of nutty work week, but a nice relaxing weekend that sort of made up for it 🙂

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  10. I’m delighted with Spring when I take a walk–all those bright spring flowers and tender green leaves. But most everything has a downside. The weeds grow so fast this time of year, and I’m behind with my gardening.

    I had a perfect contractor for my kitchen remodel, a husband and wife team. I loved them–so nice and fun to talk to, everything on time. They had very good and long relationships with the subcontractors. A couple of years later I had someone else for my bathrooms. A nice guy, but he was working on a couple of very high-end homes, and they always took precedence. Plus, I don’t think he was as skilled at getting what and whom he could depend on to come through for him.

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    • The broken-hearted contractor is doing the deck. We’ve used him for a few projects. He never starts when he says because his last job isn’t quite finished yet. Except for the week he lost when he hurt his leg, our kitchen carpenter (different guy) was very stable. He had long term relationships with the subs and except for the sink episode and the window that never did come in, it went as smoothly as can be expected during these crazy times. We’ll redo our bath in a few years. We have to recover. It will also require us to move to an upstairs bedroom so I’m not looking forward to it. Our kitchen contractor told us that the cost of the cabinets has gone up 35% since we bought our cabinets. Wow!

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    • If I hadn’t invested so much money in the project, that may have happened. I was on my last try before taking everything apart and seeing if I could do another style. As it turns out, I could have saved half the cost by going with this version first. By opting for a non-operational roman shade, I didn’t need all the fabric, rods and loops. Live and learn. I wouldn’t do this style again. I can do a full swag much faster and easier.

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    • When we were younger we may have tackled this ourselves. I have a walk-out basement so the deck is second story. My muscles are too old and neither of us are good on ladders! I redid the railings on a deck I had a long time ago. It wasn’t all that hard. I kept the floor and stained it. It looked so much better!

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  16. But the coffee? What about the coffee?! Was is at least warm when you got home? 😉 Our contractor has the second week in May scheduled to start our kitchen, but they said they “might” start earlier if the projects before us finish early. I’m not holding my breath. I hope your deck gets started soon! – Marty

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  17. Fingers crossed the deck gets started. It’s frustrating when you know a project is ready to go and the workers don’t get started. And it’s super frustrating when it holds up progress of other things that give you joy and they have a time frame. I will send you some of my leftover patience pants!
    I also enjoyed Pensitivity’s wise words.

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  19. Oh dear….well, on the Starbucks trip return – you got to see a lot more of your neighborhood anyway and I bet you’re going to set that GPS up now right? LOL I hope your deck guy and his crew will come this week and get that deck done so you can start “outdoor decorating” with plants, etc. It really makes it feel like Spring when you can put on those gardening gloves. I can no longer squat down to plant stuff so I bought a rolling “seat” – the top opens up and I can stash my gloves and tools inside. Now maybe my knees will last another few years! “Live every moment as if it were your last” comes to mind when I see way younger folks passing away…..I’m lucky I know to have survived some of the things that I have and still be ticking along – we should ALL celebrate that – especially these days.

    Hugs, Pam

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  20. Wow! What an adventurous week you had! I used to live by a stream and I don’t think any of us who hadn’t lived through it flooding even believed the sign for the low water crossing. Most of the time it wasn’t even a stream. I went to drive to school one morning and it was over the road and down toward my intersection. As I sat there deciding whether my car could make it, a truck started through it and flooded out in the middle. Fortunately for him it wasn’t moving fast. I’m glad you got home safely even though it took a while.

    I love you friend’s aphorism, “if plan A doesn’t work you have the rest of the alphabet.” That is a great way of looking at things. How often do things work out on the first try?

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  21. Kudos for being cautious in a ‘meandering stream’ area. Too many people plow through and wonder why they get in trouble. The thing about gardens is they are always ongoing. I’ve learned to recognize my shortcomings and they’ll take some time to get where it’ll be beautiful and complete. While I’d love to snap my fingers and go poof! with a gorgeous garden appearing but realize it will take time (and money) but with each small section completed there is an enormous sense of accomplishment. Hope the deck project gets started soon. 🤞🏼

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    • The deck project stalls any plantings around the patio underneath. You are right but I’m so anxious to get some color in the yard. I have some hydrangeas but there is nothing of color. Anything that blooms is white and there are no real beds except for one overgrown one in the back (next to deck also stalled until deck is done). Patience is not my biggest virtue.

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