Don't Fence Me In
Nov. 5th, 2022 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperWhen I went downstairs this morning, before I let Ruby the Dog out of her kennel, I went out in the back yard and made sure that none of the sections of fence had blown over in the 60 MPH winds of the previous evening. Happily, everything was still standing.
When Gretchen got downstairs, we got into the car, signed up for the waitlist, and headed off to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. As it happened, we had the bad luck to arrive just as a major squall hit. Rather than be stranded in the car indefinitely, we hurried to the door, which was locked. Ok, perhaps a defense against losing the main doors to a wind gust. Someone let me in the neighboring side door, where I discovered that it was dark inside. Very dark. As in, the power is out dark.
We sat for a few minutes on the bench near the door, waiting for the rain to clear up. Actually, the rain pretty much cleared up within a minute of the time we got in the restaurant. If we'd waited in the car for the squall to pass, we wouldn't have waited long and wouldn't have gotten particularly wet at all. Ah, well.
Some of the byplay while we were waiting was interesting. One kind soul offered us some rolls, which we declined. The manager was informing us that the restaurant was closed, which we understood, but we needed a minute to recover before heading out in the rain again. And at least one of the waitstaff was suggesting to the manager that they were not going to wait indefinitely for the power to come back on, because it wasn't worth the tipped wage to sit around and wait when there were going to be no tips, which struck me as fairly reasonable, since she was saying to just call her when they had something to do.
Anyway, we headed out looking for some place to have lunch that actually had power. I headed west for lack of a better idea and we decided to try out Draft Picks, which is a restaurant and sports bar not too far from home that we hadn't been to ever. (Not counting earlier occupants of the space that were not at all the same restaurant, which is the sort of thing that happens when you've been living in the neighborhood for 25+ years.) They had both a rib and a fried chicken special today, so I ordered the ribs, Gretchen ordered the chicken, and we were both quite happy.
Later that afternoon, I looked out the back door and discovered that a section of fence that I had been extremely dubious about had given way. I put Ruby the Dog back in her kennel to keep her from making an escape, because it was clear that I was going to be in and out of the back door a lot in the next little bit. One of the 25 year old posts had rotted out at ground level, the fence section had torn loose from the corner post on the other side, and two pickets had fallen off in the commotion. Well, crud.
I went into the garage and cleared a path to my power tools. This required tossing boxes, containers, big old displays, and such out of the way, along with moving the Halloween skeletons that the kids had brought in and put in any convenient place. By the time I got the skeletons hung back on their hook, I had successfully cleared the path to the tools and I grabbed the bag and brought it in. The box of fence repair parts was happily where I had left it in the library, so I grabbed the power drill, four long screws, and a hammer and headed out, stopping only briefly to put a Phillips bit in the drill and a power brick on the opposite end.
In the stupid place where I had left it, because I hadn't been able to figure out where to store it in the mess that is our garage, there was the big, black steel support that I had bought and used the last time that I had a major post failure on the fence. At least I was able to find it. I asked Gretchen to summon K, because this was going to be a two-person job. K arrived about the time that I finished hammering the support into the ground and I had her use the power drill to attach the support to the post so that it would remain standing. Then I grabbed the box of shorter screws and we put the two fallen pickets back on the fence, sending K around to the other side to attach the one that belonged there.
While all of this was going on, Ruby the Dog was making the most *pitiful* noises in her kennel, because there were her *people* in *her* yard, out there to be played with, and here she was all locked up in this *cage*. (The dog *loves* that cage, mind you. When she's ready for bed, she wanders in there and looks purposefully at us, saying "Where is my bedtime treat?")
The fence is now at least metastable and I am hoping that it will behave itself until spring, by which time Sam will hopefully be recovered from various surgeries and available to help me with some more permanent repairs.
When this sort of thing happens, K keeps asking me why we don't just have someone build us a new fence. This is because K has not priced the cost of that many linear feet of cedar fencing...
When Gretchen got downstairs, we got into the car, signed up for the waitlist, and headed off to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. As it happened, we had the bad luck to arrive just as a major squall hit. Rather than be stranded in the car indefinitely, we hurried to the door, which was locked. Ok, perhaps a defense against losing the main doors to a wind gust. Someone let me in the neighboring side door, where I discovered that it was dark inside. Very dark. As in, the power is out dark.
We sat for a few minutes on the bench near the door, waiting for the rain to clear up. Actually, the rain pretty much cleared up within a minute of the time we got in the restaurant. If we'd waited in the car for the squall to pass, we wouldn't have waited long and wouldn't have gotten particularly wet at all. Ah, well.
Some of the byplay while we were waiting was interesting. One kind soul offered us some rolls, which we declined. The manager was informing us that the restaurant was closed, which we understood, but we needed a minute to recover before heading out in the rain again. And at least one of the waitstaff was suggesting to the manager that they were not going to wait indefinitely for the power to come back on, because it wasn't worth the tipped wage to sit around and wait when there were going to be no tips, which struck me as fairly reasonable, since she was saying to just call her when they had something to do.
Anyway, we headed out looking for some place to have lunch that actually had power. I headed west for lack of a better idea and we decided to try out Draft Picks, which is a restaurant and sports bar not too far from home that we hadn't been to ever. (Not counting earlier occupants of the space that were not at all the same restaurant, which is the sort of thing that happens when you've been living in the neighborhood for 25+ years.) They had both a rib and a fried chicken special today, so I ordered the ribs, Gretchen ordered the chicken, and we were both quite happy.
Later that afternoon, I looked out the back door and discovered that a section of fence that I had been extremely dubious about had given way. I put Ruby the Dog back in her kennel to keep her from making an escape, because it was clear that I was going to be in and out of the back door a lot in the next little bit. One of the 25 year old posts had rotted out at ground level, the fence section had torn loose from the corner post on the other side, and two pickets had fallen off in the commotion. Well, crud.
I went into the garage and cleared a path to my power tools. This required tossing boxes, containers, big old displays, and such out of the way, along with moving the Halloween skeletons that the kids had brought in and put in any convenient place. By the time I got the skeletons hung back on their hook, I had successfully cleared the path to the tools and I grabbed the bag and brought it in. The box of fence repair parts was happily where I had left it in the library, so I grabbed the power drill, four long screws, and a hammer and headed out, stopping only briefly to put a Phillips bit in the drill and a power brick on the opposite end.
In the stupid place where I had left it, because I hadn't been able to figure out where to store it in the mess that is our garage, there was the big, black steel support that I had bought and used the last time that I had a major post failure on the fence. At least I was able to find it. I asked Gretchen to summon K, because this was going to be a two-person job. K arrived about the time that I finished hammering the support into the ground and I had her use the power drill to attach the support to the post so that it would remain standing. Then I grabbed the box of shorter screws and we put the two fallen pickets back on the fence, sending K around to the other side to attach the one that belonged there.
While all of this was going on, Ruby the Dog was making the most *pitiful* noises in her kennel, because there were her *people* in *her* yard, out there to be played with, and here she was all locked up in this *cage*. (The dog *loves* that cage, mind you. When she's ready for bed, she wanders in there and looks purposefully at us, saying "Where is my bedtime treat?")
The fence is now at least metastable and I am hoping that it will behave itself until spring, by which time Sam will hopefully be recovered from various surgeries and available to help me with some more permanent repairs.
When this sort of thing happens, K keeps asking me why we don't just have someone build us a new fence. This is because K has not priced the cost of that many linear feet of cedar fencing...