thanks

My housemate Lylythe asked me to pass on her thanks to all of you who sent thoughts and good wishes. She's doing okay, about as well as one could. If there's anyone who'd wanted to send a card who doesn't have our snailmail addy, drop me an email and I'll send it to you.

adventures

I just spent the last several hours having an adventure. Let's just say that a 45-foot single axle tractor-trailer so *very* barely makes it down our 1/4 mile drive without taking out trees, the power pole, the garden or the rig. And in fact, while the 40-footer I expected can (barely) use the turnaround, a 45-foot trailer simply cannot. So, after dropping off his load (my 955 gal hot water tank and four heat-exchanger coils for the wood boiler), the thankfully highly skillful and good-natured driver had to *back* his big rig all the way up the 1/4 mile drive again, around the turns, over the bridge and up the steep-sided hill road. Those of you who've ever driven any kind of trailer will know that this is a nightmare scenario for a driver.

But the bridge held (wasn't really worried about that, it's reinforced concrete footings and steel I-beams under all the pretty wood), no trees were lost, he didn't take out the power pole and transformer, or even the mailbox. He did get stuck in a low spot backing out, and I had to pull him out with my tractor, which proves its might once again, by (helping to) pull an entire tractor-trailor rig about 15 feet, after dumping several loads of hard pack road gravel under the big rig's tires.

Whew. The driver was flabbergasted when I gave him a $20 for beer on his way out (all I had on me) for going way above and beyond, his master-class skill, and his unflappable good humor. He said nobody had ever done that before, which shocked the heck out of me, even here in thrifty New England.

Lesson learned: if anyone ever wants to make delivery again in a big rig, have 'em drop it off at the end of the road and carry it down on the tractor.

Pictures of the mayhem:

http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_368.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_369.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_370.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_371.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_372.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_373.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_374.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_375.html