I woke up the other day to a strange man spray painting something in front of our house. And I’m glad I didn’t go running outside in my pajamas screaming like a crazy woman because it seems that roadside graffiti is part of our driveway repair package.
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Labbe is the name of the company we contracted to do the work. And if that little tag wasn’t bad enough?
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The next day Dig Safe showed up and added their colorful response.
I’m really tempted to go out and add something myself.
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But I doubt this generation would even understand it.
If you remember… my husband and I started our coastal trek searching for Fisherman’s Walk which I thought was entirely too short. As we finished the York Cliff Walk and headed back to our car we realized the walk was too short because we’d literally started in the middle of it.
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These trails are not well marked and it wouldn’t surprise me to find locals sitting on their porches laughing at the tourist’s confusion. Winters are long, we have to get our jollies somewhere.
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Onward…
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Not knowing what to expect around the next corner we almost missed the path as it goes right in front of someone’s house.
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Around the bend, a boardwalk.
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And past that a causeway.
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That leads to a nature preserve.
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It was a lovely section.
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And we really picked a perfect day to do it. Clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 70’s.
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At the end of the causeway was a locally famous bridge.
The final section of my cliff walk saga ( but not the entire stroll) contains a monument.
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Which, considering it’s in Maine…. is perfectly fitting.
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I’ve known two lobsterman who lost their lives to the ocean. One was fishing alone and had his leg caught in a skein line. It dragged him overboard and he was drowned at 20 years old. The other went out one morning to haul traps and never came back. The sea claims its own.
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Around the memorial?
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A park we never knew existed, which ironically was the actual entrance to the cliff walk we’d inadvertently found. Never let it be said we don’t do things backwards.
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Oh look.. an informational plaque the husband had to read.
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Not that it wasn’t fascinating history…
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But I prefer to wander and explore. You never know what you’ll find.
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This time it was a heartfelt memorial bench. I love these and have often thought if my husband passes before me I’m going to donate one somewhere.
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This saying would be perfect, as he truly is my rock as well.
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One more clump of wild beach roses.
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A final look back…
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And we returned to the beach where we started.
A fabulous walk through a truly scenic area. If you’re ever in York Maine don’t miss it.
We’ve had a lot of afternoon rain showers lately and with them comes rainbows.
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Too cloudy for a complete one, but with rainbows… half is just as sweet.
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Required photos of Lord Dudley Mountcatten.
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Seen here taking a bath with his blue whale.
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Round two of flowers for the new stone garden bed out back. Fingers crossed the woodchucks don’t like them.
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Family size my ever expanding *ss. These packages get smaller all the time. And if you haven’t tried the toffee flavor? Run to the store before I buy them all out from under you.
Our driveway is old and in desperate need of replacement. It’s cracked, rutted and basically caving in on itself. This isn’t uncommon in the great state of Maine, land of frost heaves and pot holes that can swallow a car in one easy gulp, but sooner or later everything has to be fixed.
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We’ve been putting off the inevitable because I knew the cost of contracting a new one was going to make me scream. But fate intervened when our neighbor told us they were redoing theirs and the paving company said we could both get a discount if we did them at the same time. Never wanting to miss a sale… we sucked it up and took the plunge.
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Mind you, our driveway isn’t huge. 92 feet long, narrow at the road end and widening by the garage with a parking bump out on the left.
Not knowing a damn thing about the process of ripping up the old and installing new, I naively guessed the cost would be eight to ten thousand dollars.
I was wrong.
By half.
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Hence the title of my blog.
Over $20,000…. and yes, I did scream. For mercy but there’s none coming.
We had a few other estimates that were similar but none of those companies could get to us until late next year, they were booked that far out. The only reason we’ll be redone next week is because our neighbor was already on the list.
Oh, the discount?
$576. A weirdly random number and not nearly enough… but it’s something.
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go have another scream at the thought of writing an almost $21,000 check for something I’m just going to drive on.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
