Pushing a Car

I know that’s an odd title for a post but I’ll get to that.

So another Gravel Day, I can’t tell you how happy I am!!! Possible I’m coming down with something but today seemed a bit of a slog, it wasn’t I just felt like it. Probably close to freezing but the sun was out and within ten minutes I needed to ditch some clothing.

I’m bucketing the in gravel but I’m only filling the buckets to halfway and taking them one at a time. Our friend Derrick suggested that we should add any unwanted stone so I’m adding the stone rubble which we took off the top of the walls, this has helped a lot. I probably added about 6″ of gravel on Saturday and today was similar. We’re probably halfway done and have added enough to prevent any trench collapse, in fact I now want the trench to collapse to save us shoveling dirt back in. If it doesn’t rain or snow over the next few weekends we’ll probably finish the project this year, though I do think we may need to order some more gravel, joy to my ears!!!

It was a bit of a slog today also so I’m not coming down with anything, it’s just the nature of the beast.

By the way we added the thick grips to the buckets to make carrying a lot less painful. The green one on the left cannot be transferred to a new bucket, however, the rubber one on the right can be. I highly recommend them.

So, pushing a car, how does that tie in? It’s something Aimee and I witnessed a few years back when we lived in Oakland. It was evening and we were sitting on the front patio of Beer Revolution (3rd and Broadway) when we saw a chap, maybe in his 50’s/60’s pushing his car through the intersection. I thought he’d just bring his car to rest as soon as he had cleared the junction, but no, he kept on pushing it. I kept on expecting him to pull over, but no he kept on going. Feeling sorry for the chap I caught up with him and asked whether he wanted a hand, “no” he said politely, he was fine. Being inquisitive I asked him where he was going and he said Berkeley. Berkeley!!! That was a couple of miles away and there was a slight incline on the way, nothing if you’re walking or cycling, but pushing a car, crazy!!!!

On returning to our beers I mentioned this to Aimee and we decided to leave and catch up with the chap who was heading in the direction of our loft. We caught up and after some persuasion he let us help him push his car. Turns out when we first saw him he had already pushed it a few miles, I think from East Oakland or Fruitvale. I can’t remember where his final destination was in Oakland but at the time the total distance seemed to be at least 5 miles.

So whenever I have a daunting task I think of this chap, who incidentally must have had the heart of an ox, and think can this be has hard as pushing that car.

Aimee has a bit of a bad back at the moment so she spent her time raking up the leaves on our lawn and it does look great clear of leaves.

Dedicated to Aimee’s Mum who passed away today. Bye, Bye Doris you will be missed, love you. 20th April, 1929 – 20th November, 2022.