58 years and still making stupid mistakes. The more I look at that back yard the angrier I am at myself:

It sounded like such a great idea when the guys suggested that since we were going to have that Terramite here anyway to spread gravel in the drive we might as well use the backhoe on it to dig the rest of the trench for the line to the freeze-proof hydrant. If I could back up and start over I'd have them use the backhoe to dig the 4' deep hole for the hydrant, then take it back and rent a trencher the next day so we ended up with a trench just wide enough to lay pipe in. I'd also route the trench a lot farther from that tree in the corner of the yard. When comes smart?

Look what they did to my yard, ma!

Dumbass kid about 25 or so says "Sure, it's plenty solid enough to dump your dirt back there." Dumbass birthday boy takes his word for it. Kid nearly buries gravel truck trying to pull away from the load he just dumped, calls his 92 year old grandpa (who still runs the family business he started 70+ years ago) for help. Grandpa shows up with another truck, hooks a chain to the first one, pretty soon they're both hung.

Finally they call someone with some good sense and the proper equipment:

Nothing left now but the ruts in the yard, and I still don't have the other load of gravel I expected the kid to bring after he brought the topsoil. Tomorrow for that, it looks like. We'll rent the Terramite again in a few days to spread more gravel in the drive, fill in the water-line trench, and fix the ruts in the yard. Maybe if I last another 58 years I'll get smart somewhere along the way.

The keyboard and mouse I ordered to use with my new laptop came this morning. If the gravel truck thing hadn't ended up taking up so much of my day it would have been a good day to start learning my way around Vista better; maybe I could even have found a place to adjust the touchpad sensitivity.  Maybe another time. I'm still waiting for the RAM upgrade I ordered anyway and have a hunch I'll like Vista better after I install it.

On a brighter note, if they ever get around to landscaping properly around it that lake they dug to get dirt for under the new Wal-Mart has the potential to be sorta pretty eventually. That picnic table is sitting more or less where I'd eventually like to have a small gazebo built for when my sister decides it's time to roast weenies over an open fire out back.

When I think how close we came to selling the guy who dug that lake part of our place it's downright scary. He offered us money at a time we really could have found a use for it but I for one am a whole lot happier having a pasture with a horse in it out beside the house and our own private little park out back.