Work before Play this weekend

Mt. Baker from the ferry terminal on Lopez Island

Work:
My profession involves creating and executing plans. Hottie and I had talked about putting a patio surface under our deck for some time. When the ideas swirling around my brain began to coalesce, so did a plan. I began by excavating a four foot by four foot area next to a small cement pad under our back door. Using old boards I bounded the area and put down crushed rock because we needed to maintain an easement for Tux the wonder dog to come and go as needed. We had a small mound of crushed rock that was left over from a parking pad that had been a project last summer.


Understandably, this small section was unimpressive. Over the next two weeks I expanded the area, a bit at a time, in the evenings after work. Last week I stopped on the way home each evening and purchased thirty to forty bricks and two hundred pounds of sand. By Friday I had the required bricks and sand. I made a tamper out of plywood, an old 4x4, a broom stick and fifteen pounds of weights.


This is the drainage pipe buried..

Crushed rock having been "tamped" down. Note the homespun tamper to the right..

Saturday I made one last trip to Home Depot and attacked. Dig the final dimensions. Dig, route and bury a drain pipe. Pour on the crushed rock. Pour on the sand. Curse; buy more sand. Spread the sand. Watch Tux walk on the sand. Curse; spread the sand. Lay the pavers. Admire ever so briefly.


The actual laying of the pavers was cake !

This was a daunting task that is suited to men much younger than Evo. I was only able to accomplish it by working it a piece at a time. It would have been easy to dismiss the project as being too big for a man now known in some circles and “fiddy-cent,” but my perseverance paid off.

Play:
After running out of time only moments before my back muscles exploded in revolt, I showered and Hottie and I went and caught the races at the Marymoor Velodrome.

More Play:
Sunday we drove up to Anacortes and caught a ferry to Lopez Island for a leisurely circumnavigation of the Island with a nice lunch thrown in.

Evo leaving Annacortes


Hottie ready for lunch !