A SPRING PROJECT

 POST # 643

One week ago today, I departed Vancouver enroute to La Conner Washington, to visit Mary and Dora-dog.  Arriving at the station, I was happy to see that the Amtrak train was indeed back in business, after being suspended for a short time, while they worked on getting some newer cars on the route.  That was the first good news after arriving at the station.  The next potential hurdle was customs.  It's sounding more and more like a journey into the USA is not going to be as easy as before.  Imagine my surprise when I fronted up to the customs agent, and he just looked at my passport, stamped my customs card, and I was on my way.  He didn't even ask me one question.  Now, that's never happened before.  I was happy to board the train and soon we were on our way south.

We arrived at my stop of Mount Vernon about fifteen minutes behind schedule and Mary and Dora-dog were there to greet me.

Now that spring is here, there are projects that need to be completed, and the first one on the list was getting a new surface on the driveway.  

The first job was to put down the landscaping fabric, which looks like an easy job, but the day that we did this, the wind was blowing, which made it difficult to get the fabric in place.  With patience and persistence, we eventually had the driveway covered, in anticipation of the truck arriving the next morning with a load of gravel.

Somehow we managed to get that large pile of gravel spread evenly all along the driveway.  The man at the head of the driveway is Peter who was there to help us out.  So it was ***Peter, Paul and Mary working hard to get the driveway completed.

The final job was to compact the newly dispersed gravel.  The neighbour had a machine to accomplish this task, and so I had the opportunity to give it a go, and finish the job.  Mary took this photo of me at work.  I look like a grumpy old man.  I was actually enjoying the work, so I have no clue as to why this expression was on my face.

So that job is done, but I am sure there will be other jobs to complete during my stay.  

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

***This is the second time that Mary and I have been together when a man named Peter arrived on the scene.  Some years ago we were house sitting together, and a man rode  up on his motorcycle to visit the owners.  He introduced himself, as Peter.  I said "hi, my name is Paul and this is my friend Mary."