In The Right Place At The Right Time

              I was in the right place a few hours ago. Getting caught up on some long neglected E-mails I heard a mother and father Cardinal raising Hell in my driveway. Going out the side door to investigate I found these two birds dive-bombing my Stumpy, who had their baby bird in his mouth. Stumpy stopped when I talked to him and stood still. I was able to open his jaws which allowed the little bird to escape. The little birds wings and legs seemed OK and he quickly got away. Stumpy is on “time out” here in the house now!

Life has gotten away from me these past few weeks. I have been a stranger to keeping up my journal. It all started out with acquiring those bricks in Knoxville, TN which set in motion a chain of events that has taken over my life these past few weeks. After switching out plain “vanilla bricks” with these fancier pavers I decided to brick between the fire hydrants. The grass has been slowly dying out and what was left was so hard to cut and trim.

That initial project worked out pretty well; then I got the brainstorm to expand the sidewalk over to these new bricks. To do this required me to tear up the side brick foundation I poured way back when. As I was playing with these bricks I was contemplating how many times I have handled, moved, and installed them into different projects in the past thirty years. It was the summer of 1983 I salvaged some 600 of these old bricks. It was a lot of work to tie this new installation to the existing laid brick. I love a challenge so I’ve been a happy boy working the brick saw and pounding down crushed limestone.

Before shot of the hydrants and brickwork:

Work in progress:  

The bricks are all in place waiting for the sanding:

Midway through this project I had a fast road trip to Athens, Ohio for the brick swap. I drove this trip in easy segments. My first stop was at Trader Joe’s in Nashville to stock up on pound plus chocolate. From here it was a straight shot to the Shepardsville, KY Motel 6. I’ve stayed here before. The Cattleman Steak House is close-by for a decent supper. I had a wonderful greasy bacon cheeseburger. I had the same wait person as my last trip. We had a fun time dishing at the bar.

Friday July 26th I got an early start to Athens, OH. I took the By-pass around Cincinnati, OH and then picked up RT 32 to Athens. It was a nice break from the interstate to drive the country roads. I got to Athens<span style="font-s

ize: medium;”> right around noontime. I was here for a swap back in 2011. Things have changed with the adoption of “round-a-bouts” for some major intersections.

It was so good to hook up and visit with my friends again. I got more positive feedback from the swap I hosted in the spring. This swap was to held on the campus of Ohio State at Athens. The parking lot in front of the Insane Asylum built in 1868 will be home for the swap.

We had a “meet and greet” at a pavilion not far from the swap site. There was a wonderful presentation given on the different brick factories which were located along the Hocking River which had excellent clay and shale for the production of paving bricks. I had a number of people drooling over the trader bricks I brought. I was told this “square design” is a hard brick to find. For once I had bricks people wanted! LOL!

I need to finish this entry up and get to the “Y” for a workout. Bricks have ruled my life to the point I’ve neglected my Erging and working out. No better time than now to get back into my schedule.