Day 265 - September 23 - Welcome to Fall

We've again skipped the bridge season and dropped straight into fall.  I went to work this morning in the rain, and came home to dark clouds with flashes of sunlight and MUCH cooler temperatures.  I wore my fleece in the house all evening and dug out an afghan because it was chilly.  And looking at the forecast it will probably get cooler in the house.

Yes I know, there is this thing in the basement called a furnace which would work a treat and make the house warm, but stubborn, frugal German kid, I'm holding off on turning on the heat until I can't stand it.  My goal is November 1.  Actually right now the house is 70 degrees and that's warmer than I keep it in the winter.  I'm just so used to upper 80s to mid 90s that the whole world seems a bit cool at the moment.

In keeping with the cooler weather, my hat is showing much progress.  According to the pattern, I've passed the halfway point.  At this rate it may be done before the weekend is over.  I've got a couple of other ideas that are marinating in the back of my mind.  I'm really trying to avoid a case of startitis, but the cooler weather begs for new woolens.

On another note, I literally found a note tucked in the side door. (For those who know my house, the door that NEVER gets used.)  It seems that the contractor who is destroying all the yards installing all of the service lines in the neighborhood would really like to get into my basement so they can figure out how to do the most damage they can to my landscaping route the service line and where to install the new meter. 

Best as I can figure from how they've done this to the other homes on the block, is that they are going to want to run it right here.

They've trenched every other house on block, and re-seeded them today.   I'm finding it sort of funny and yet know that it shows how ignorant they are, that they got dirt/debris all over my driveway from their installation in my neighbor's yard and instead of shoveling/cleaning it off, they threw down grass seed and straw on the driveway. 

When Columbia's project manager met with us a couple of months ago, he indicated that they would be using directional boring to install both the main and service lines to minimize damage to our property.  From the looks of it, this contractor has decided to ignore that part of the specifications.  I'm thinking that my best option will be to insist that the project manager be present for any meeting with this contractor.  I know of no other way of impressing on both that I'm dead serious about forcing them to limit the damage they will do to the plantings.  I worked too long and hard to design and install these gardens to let lazy contractors who don't give a damn destroy them in less than an hour.  If this were one of my projects they would be forced to bring in a landscape contractor to move the plants out of harms way and restore them once they were done.  Whether Columbia was that clever to require that in a blue collar neighborhood, is up for debate.  You can bet they require it in Upper Arlington and Bexley.