Yes, I Really Can Do Things

My weekend includes a 5K. I had sworn off such things, but then this came up. It's called the St. Michael's Day Dash and will be held in my own downtown. In February we had one of the most awful events that could happen in a small town at our city hall and the proceeds from this race will benefit Backstoppers and the victims of the tragedy. Even if I weren't a runner I would support this effort.

Now on to lighter subjects....

For several years I was told, with a good amount of frequency, about the things I couldn't do. Now I'm learning about the things I can do.

Over the summer, I had an interior dog fence taken out of my backyard. All the fencing and posts were nicely lined up so all I had to do was get them to the curb and then call someone to take them away. Getting the fencing to the curb was no problem. The posts were something else (concrete-encased beasts that they were). I saw a neighbor kid outside, a former h.s. football player, and hired him to move the posts from the backyard to the front. I left, came home, and voila - the posts were on my curb!

That night, at roughly 8:30, I posted a picture on craigslist with an ad that the scrap metal was free to whomever would pick it up, but they had to take everything. By 9 I had three or four e-mails; by 9:15 I was on my driveway talking with two guys with a pickup truck who were taking away the metal. I asked them, "You are taking the posts as well, right?"

"Well, we weren't going to, no."

"The ad said you take everything and I don't have a way to get rid of them."

Long sigh. "OK. We'll take them." I stood on my driveway and watched as they took everything. Forty-five minutes is my craigslist record! I was very proud.

But after all was said and done, the yard looked like this. A previous owner had put in the dog run with rock and landscape carpet and now it looked awful.

I got a couple of bids to get it all replaced - rock and carpet gone, dirt and sod laid down. I hemmed and hawed (decision making is not a strong suit and I hate parting with my money), and finally hired a company to clean things up. These photos show the progress.

I LOVE my new yard! I splurged and went with sod instead of seed since I knew Jake-the-wonder-dog would wreak havoc with seed and since a friend had assured me she had done seed and wished she'd done sod just to have it all finished. It's so awesome! Nights on the patio will be better than ever!

And finally, a couple of weeks ago I found that I had "critters" in my house. Yuck. So I called the critter patrol (which is not a cheap adventure) and they set traps this week. Success! I won't go into detail or share the photo, but let's just say at least one critter is gone. (Trust me, I was going to let them be then I started to worry about chewed wires, fires, etc. And they were driving Jake nuts and he, in turn, was driving me nuts.)

Last but not least, meet Jake!