Dave's experience with his local government's road crew gave me an idea for a post. Gotta take inspiration whenever it comes. I've also let some of the required maintenance lapse longer than I should have but I'll save that for another day. Today, we're talking about road work.
Crabapple Lane was an incomplete, unnamed dirt and gravel road when we bought our property way back in 1988. In fact, our land survey below referred to it as "proposed road".

Survey
The "
proposed road" was completed sometime before we built our house but it was still dirt and gravel. This was 1993 or 1994, I think.

Jump to 2002 or 2003 and enter St Tammany Parish. The road is to be paved. New culverts would be required. The culvert I had was the cheapest my contractor could get away with. It was up to the builder's code but the parish preferred their own. I'm thinking, OK, they're going to tear up my driveway skirt, replace my culvert, and I'm going to get a bill for several hundred or several thousand dollars from the parish. My culvert and driveway skirt were on parish
right-of-way. They had every right to do whatever they wanted.

Paving the road took a few days. They ripped up my asphalt driveway skirt, yanked the cheapo galvanized aluminum culvert out, replaced it with
TWO of these nice concrete and steel culverts you see pictured, paved and widened my driveway skirt with concrete, and landscaped both sides of the skirt where the culvert stuck out. They had done a fantastic job, far exceeding expectations. I almost had a heart attack. What is that going to cost me? This was September. Among other expenses,
all of my insurance premiums (
Two cars and two life) are due in September. If this is going to cost more than a few hundred bucks, I don't know what I'm going to do. I called the contractor and asked him for an estimate. He said I'd have to talk to the parish. I went round and round for a few hours before I found the person in charge at the parish.
"
Oh, Mr Ferrara, there's no charge. Just let the concrete on the skirt set overnight before you drive on it."
Sixteen tons had just been lifted. We parked on the street that night. They did cut my phone line while they were doing this and I was without phone and internet service for a weekend. It was football and fantasy football opening weekend, when all of the glitches on the website come up. There wasn't a chance in hell that I was going to complain to anyone, though. Phone and internet service was restored on Monday morning and I had a cool new driveway.
I am ever thankful for today's QOTD about Michael Vick.
72 days until football season ...
Quote of the Day
Saints: Vick is no Saint. And he hardly seems ideal for the offense if Drew Brees was suddenly unavailable.
Buzz Up, USA Today
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "So while they may not be flashy, gutters are an important feature of the home, which require a balance of practicality and aesthetics."
Ran across this blog while looking for someone to cleanout my gutters. -Rob
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