Sixteen Five Tons and What Do You Get?

A resurfaced parking space, that's what! 18' x 24'

While Donica worked from home on Friday, she squeezed in ordering 5 tons of granite gravel to resurface our 3-car parking spot at the end of our driveway. The original granite had sunk into the Georgia clay and had left spots for mudpuddles when it rained.

When the dump truck came, I was ready, of course :) Warning: This is where I plug my Canon S3 IS camera again, for the Sports' mode that allows for action shots. I took a continuous sequence of about 20 shots as the truck unloaded and got a video-like short movie. That was one of the reasons why I picked this camera and am thrilled with the option. But then I had to pick just one photo so as not to bore you! Anyway, this is obviously the beginning of the fall!

Because of Donica's pain, I would not let her help me--DUH (and then she apologized for ordering the gravel when she did). But little by little, that Friday evening, when the sun was down, I started shoveling the gravel around for about an hour. I actually like that kind of physical activity which I find to be quite therapeutic. The plan was to finish the next morning, yesterday.

The next morning, however, by the time I got outside and unbenownst to me, Donica was already going to town. She had things down to a science, telling me that it worked better to shovel the gravel into the wheelbarrow and then dump the little loads to wherever for raking smooth.

"AND WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT!!" I asked.

Well, even I have to admit that her answer made sense. "I'm sure it's not a strained groin muscle," she said. She wanted to test it by shoveling and raking and guess what: no pain! She had been told by a co-worker (who frequently gets kidney stones) that her doctor told her to drink lots of water and jump up and down. HA. So Donica decided to shovel and rake.

The pain is still there, coming and going, but was not any worse in the few hours around the exercise. In fact, she actually felt a bit better and thought maybe she had in fact passed what she thinks is/was a kidney stone.

However, at her mom's later last evening (finally celebrating Donica's bithday, almost a week later!), the pain returned a bit. Mom says it may be "gravel" and not a kidney stone per se, which would explain why it hasn't shown up on the scans.

Speaking of gravel, here's the job, done. All smoothed out. Five tons of it.

If that's the problem with Donica--"gravel" in her system--we pray for as speedy a smooth-out. If not, we go to Plan ? (what is it by now??).

You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
l owe my soul to the company store.
(-Merle Travis, from "Sixteen Tons,"1947)