Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Great Retaining Wall Tragedy of O'12


Do you know the feeling where you spend a month and a half on one project and you give it everything you have and then some just so you can finally step back and say with satisfaction that it is done and you made it?

And then do you know the feeling where life shows up and destroys that project?

Yeah.




So it rained like a bitch shit ton, and guess what happens when you take really, really dry ground and then wet really quickly. You get this.

I was walking the dog, trying not to get wet by skirting the mud puddles. It of course had been raining like a crazy demon the past two days and the dog was happy to be outside sniffing things. Well we walked up the driveway and turned off into the wood, and that's when I saw it.

There was the initial flood of despair, followed by a rather rational discussion in the back of my mind if I could just deny this had happened for a while.

It decided no.

So I walked, blank and zombie like, back up to the house. Scott was working by the sheds, trying to fix the weed eater. His back was to me, and I had to cross the lawn to reach him. I had this sense that I was about to ruin his day. Ruin it hard core. That with every heavy step I was taking across the waterlogged grass I was one step closer to taking his happiness and smashing it on the ground.

I reached him and took a deep breath.

Then I smashed his happiness all over the ground. After that brief moment where his brain decided if it could deny this problem, we walked back down the drive and looked at it.

Scott was more optimistic then me. Pointing out that wall had stayed together all the way down and that we should be able to just add more rocks on top of it.

Oh fucking boy.

Well at this point, drinking was right out, because I had to work the next day. I went inside and did the only thing I could do. I took a motherfucking nap and prayed to god that things would be better when I woke up.

It wasn't.

So now I need more rocks.

You know, maybe it's not too late to deny it after all.

What were we talking about?

9 comments:

  1. Oh I am so sorry! That wall was beautiful! It's still pretty in the picture but that must have been a major disappointment.

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  2. Oh no!!!! I can't believe it! This really really sucks... maybe we were all admiring it too much :-(

    Actually, it really is still beautiful - but I know retaining walls are supposed to do more than be just beautiful. So sorry!

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  3. Oh Dear! Sad news indeed. But your husband is right. You must have done a wonderful job on the construction for the wall to remain intact through this. Think how indestructible it will when you get it brought back up to grade!

    You took on Mother Nature and it doesn't look like you did all that bad?

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    1. Yeah, the fact that it remained intact was pretty amazing. We probably shouldn't have had that section as far up slope as we did, but live and learn.

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  4. Queen Holly, I'm soliciting votes to win the Kindle that Pish Posh is offering to her Get Fit Challenge contestants. If you have a vote to spare, I would be trilled to get it! The voting is at:

    http://www.the-pish-posh.com/2012/05/week-12.html

    You just have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and right before the comment section you'll see the contestants' images with a little "vote" link under each. Voting ends Monday morning. Thank you :-)

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  5. Hi Holly, i wanted to let you know that i'm passing a Kreativ Blogger on to you. Stop off at my newest post for the details. :)

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    Replies
    1. It seems my page ate you comment again. You're welcome. :)

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    2. Yeah, I've been having problems with my router. I don't know if that's exactly what's causing it but it might be. Either that or evil magic.

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  6. Catching up on my blog-reading, and SO SORRY!

    ...on the other hand, the building of the wall was such fun to read about, I'll look forward to reading about the re-building.

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