Being Neighbourly

[SCENE: back yard, last Thursday night. The long weekend awaits, and CAM and DANI are sitting in their back yard at their patio set, enjoying one of the last warm evenings of the summer, enjoying a glass of wine and a game of scrabble.]

DANI: It's your turn.

CAM: Oh...uh...OK...P-E-A-T. Peat. 6 points.

{enter "BOB", head pops over back fence}

"BOB": Hey, I saw a flyer advertising cheap sod for sale. It's nearby, over in Chaparral. Maybe this is a good time to remove that rock and put down sod, get it done. We're home all next week so it will be easy to get it all done.

CAM: Can you lay sod in the fall?

"BOB": Well....you can. Besides, the sod is on sale.

[FADE OUT]



Long story short: Cam and I spent all last week shoveling loads of rock onto our driveway. "Bob" said he'd rototill the dirt. "Bob" never got around to it, so we decided to give it a whirl last night. "Bob"'s Tonka toy of a rototiller wouldn't even break the surface. I phoned around the yellowpages trying to find a landscaper with more power (grunt, grunt).

We ended up renting a machine for $45 (Cam picked it up, I dropped it off). Note that "Bob" is not to be found. Cam attempted to till last night with the bigger tiller, but still no luck. We ended up watering the dirt for 3 hours, which resulted in leaving no option except for Cam to take a few hours off work this morning to rototill while I looked after Chance. We stopped by "Bob"'s house last night to let him know that the tilling wasn't going so well and that Cam would have to take time off work to get it done. Never mind that it was supposed to be "Bob"'s job to till.

Then the dirt needed to be raked. "Bob" said he'd do it. Funny, I was the only one out raking the dirt today. Good thing Chance takes naps twice a day. "Bob" and "Bob's wife" were busying away in their house or garage or whatever.

I stopped by to talk to the "Bobs" about getting the sod laid, and they ensured her that it would be fine for 3 days and they would get around to it. After a bit more pressing, they conceded to start on it "first thing" tomorrow morning. Anyone wanna bet that the sod is still on its pallet on Sunday afternoon???