Knowing that there was nothing to do with the patio until 12:30 p.m. at the earliest, I eased into my morning. Just before 11 a.m., I went out to the garage to clean and photograph some of the things I culled from my drawers just to kill time until my gravel was delivered. I hadn’t been out there more than 15 minutes when I heard the telltale hiss of airbrakes right outside my house. I checked the Ring camera and saw a man walking from a large, flatbed truck parked in the middle of the street to my front door an hour and a half earlier than the earliest time in the four-hour delivery window they gave me.

Be Late, Never Early

In a world with ever-decreasing quality in customer service, I really shouldn’t complain about a delivery driver jamming through his day. It wasn’t a problem, but I wonder what would have happened had I not been home or taking a shit or something.

It reminded me of the time I worked for a carpet cleaning company that scheduled me for an afternoon appointment in Pacific Palisades. Obviously, this was back when there were still houses there. Anyway, I had four hours to kill between my morning appointment and my afternoon appointment, so I kept hounding the office to get me into the job earlier. The customer, however, wouldn’t return any of our calls.

So, I showed up at the house fifteen minutes early, and I could hear someone inside playing a violin badly. I knocked on the door, but the woman continued torturing the poor cat, who died in vain to make her instrument. I knocked again, and the call to summon the desolate one came to an abrupt halt. A short, chunky woman in her 60s opened the door, and before I could say a word, she said, “Our appointment is in 15 minutes. I’ll be with you in 15 minutes,” and then she slammed the door in my face.

That was the harshest reaction I ever received for being early, but I found throughout my 16 years in the carpet cleaning business that people don’t like it when you’re early. I think because they’re expecting you to be late.

Back To My Delivery

He asked me where I wanted them and then got to work unloading four large bags filled with 900 pounds of sand and gravel each. The bags were large, but they were smaller than I had imagined they would be, which I was kind of happy about because they looked less daunting. As soon as he left, I built a ramp to negotiate the two steps up to the terraced portion of the yard where the fire pit is, and then, I got to work.

It took about two hours and fifteen minutes to move all of the gravel from my driveway to the backyard. I started to get concerned that I hadn’t ordered enough, but those worries were quickly assuaged when I started spreading it out.

After lunch, I started laying stones down. I had always intended to lay the stones on top of the blocks, so that’s how I prepped the gravel and started laying the stones, but I didn’t like it. I dug out some of the gravel and laid a piece of rock down so that it was flush with the top of the block, and I instantly knew that was the right decision. Any apprehension or indecision I felt about this project evaporated, and I started laying stones in earnest.

I worked until I ran out of daylight. I really didn’t want to stop, but I couldn’t see what I was doing, so I called it a day. Tomorrow will go quickly, I think. 🤞

In Other News…

This little guy took up residence in our patio cover. I don’t know if this is the same one that had two babies last year, or if this is one of the babies, or if she’s a whole different bird.