YOU CAN ALWAYS WORK WITH US! (#48):
My first big project after Cathy sold her condo and moved permanently to Pass-a-grille was a new driveway. The old asphalt drive was a cracked mess and I still had the 2,000 bricks I would need left over in a big stack. All the bricks weren’t Augusta, but I could use the others as a border, and when I was finished it looked great.
First, I had to get rid of the old driveway. Cathy’s Nissan Xtera had a trailer hitch, so I rented a small stand on tractor from Home Depot and bought a pick. The “Little Tractor That Couldn’t” scraped off most of the old asphalt, but didn’t make a dent in the 3 inches of 20 year old crushed limestone bed that needed to come up. I had to do that by hand with the pick.
I also needed to get rid of the old asphalt. That wasn’t something I could throw over the seawall. I filled up a garbage can with small pieces and stacked some pieces beside it and waited for the garbage truck. I asked the driver and the two men that did the pick up if they would take the asphalt over three trips and showed them three $20 bills. They agreed. I gave them the $20s and helped throw the asphalt in the garbage truck.
For the next pick up, I waited with a big pile of asphalt. When the truck came I gave all three $10 and helped load the asphalt. The two men that picked up the garbage said, “You don’t need to do that. We got this.” I replied, “No I want to help. I really appreciate you doing this for me.”
The last pick up was for a smaller pile of asphalt. I helped throw it in the truck and gave the two pick up men and the driver each $5, shook their hand, and thanked them. One of the pick up men said, “If you ever need a job, you can come work with us.” The other added, “You sure can!” I replied, “”I’ll keep that in mind. Sounds a lot better than practicing law!”
It seemed to take forever to pick away the old crushed limestone. I did a section at a time and then laid bricks. Pick away limestone and throw it in the alley for a day, then lay bricks the next. I was only working part time with Continental at the time, and finished the project in two weeks. I was 53 years old and in the best shape I had been in for quite a while.
When the project was over, my neighbor on the other side of the 30th Avenue alley invited me over for a beer, “You need to see this from the third floor.” We grabbed a beer in the second floor kitchen and went up to a third floor patio.
What a view! The beach, the bay, the Mangrove island that my father had used as a fort when he was a kid and was now a rookery for pelicans, herons, and egrets. Howard toasted me and said, “I love living next to you and watching what you are going to do next. I feel like I am living next to a park!”