As this last week progressed and the pressure to complete the project became greater I told my boss that I would be taking time off to get a grasp on my personal and family time since there has not been a break at all for the last 3-4 weeks. Come Thursday Night, I had had enough! We spent all day Friday running errands with the wife, and trying to get things that had been put off for over a month wrapped up.

Saturday we rented a mini front loader to re-distribute the dirt that was displaced by the new drive way..  we started at 7am and did not stop until after I was violently thrown off the machine while going over a bump (at about 3:30pm). It was time to stop. I was tired and dealing with heat exhaustion. Don’t worry though, only minor scrapes and bruises. We took the front loaded back (a $200 well spent by the way) I will say this.. that is an awkward machine to operate  since you stand on the back and there is nothing to hold you to the machine. One hand controls the direction and movement while the other controls the bucket leaving nothing to hold on with. Every bump would act like a catapult because of the balance point of it. I cheated and used a tie down to secure my waist to it so that I would not randomly fall off.. what did me in was going down a lip, it decided to rock forward more than I was expecting me throwing me forward. The instincts kicked in and I somehow managed to force myself off the side so that in the case it went all the way over, I would not be caught under it.. ( gotta love reflexes). once I got cleaned up and had a chance to cool down. I went to work cleaning all of the dirt back off the driveway. It only took several hours and was worth every moment to relax as the sun was beginning to set and a cool breeze was coming through.

(only one more post this week – don’t miss it)