New Driveway Blacktop for the Win . . .

 As we roll on into fall, I decided to get my driveway seal coated.  It hasn't been done in probably six years, so it was overdue.  

So, I rang the place that did it last time, and they gave me a quote of $180, which is a great price because - dang - doing blacktop/seal coat is a nasty, messy job.  I had no desire to do it myself and was happy to pony up the money.  In addition, the guys fixed the dips at the step up to the porch, which I think was likely part of the reason that I fell over back in June.

Please excuse my raggedy old goose.  He came with my cousin's house and she was going to throw him out a million years ago and he's been on my porch ever since, broken/repaired neck and all.  

Here's the driveway - it was still wet in this photo so it looks pretty shiny.  Oh yeah!

One of the most important things about seal coating a driveway is that it creates awesome passive solar in the winter - the black sucks up the heat and it's way easier to keep the driveway clear of snow and ice in winter when it's well black topped.  

Here's how they fixed the dips.  It's not perfect, but at least there are no more dips and my chances of falling over again are lessened.  Sorry for the wonky angle.  We're looking straight down on the new filler blacktop here - again, it was wet when I took this one so there was no walking out to get the same view.  

So, with my driveway looking so swanky, I decided that I really needed to fix my coach light.  It needed to be painted and one of the old house numbers fell off more than a year ago and I could never find it.  I'm sure this coach light was original to the house, which means that the numbers were probably from 1961 . . .  Some of them were already losing their black paint when I bought the house 16 years ago, but they were still reflective so I left them alone until the one fell off last year.  I couldn't leave them up missing a number, so I took them all off.  They must have been ready to go because they popped right off very easily.

I looked for replacements last year and found that no one made metal numbers like this in this size anymore.  Since the house number is also on the house and it's visible from the street, I let it go.  Here's how it looked not too long after the numbers came off.  It looks like they originally painted and then put the numbers on, and when the paint began to flake off, the numbers didn't hold.

Here are some views of the coach light from last year after a storm knocked the top off. You can see how cloudy the globe was, and if you click to biggify, you'll see the lichen growing on the back and two pieces of rubber taped in place with black electrician's tape.  They cover two holes in the pole.  Hornets used to nest in the pole, so years ago I covered one of the holes and got some of that spray that shoots 20 feet.  I'm a good shot.  ;-)  My electrician at the time did this fix when he was fixing the automatic eye that turns the light off and on based on sunlight, and it's been that way every since. You don't really notice it unless someone points it out to you, and who cares as long as there aren't any hornets anymore, right?!

Here's the top, with a big divot of dirt on it from when it blew off in the storm - you can see how faded it was.

Anyway - when I decided that I needed to do this project to keep up with the newly spiffy driveway, I went back on the hunt for new house numbers, and I found some adhesive, reflective numbers that were 3" tall on Amazon, of all places (I don't know why this surprises me).  :-D  So, I sanded off the lichen, gave it all a once-over with the sand paper, got a can of spray paint, taped over where the numbers would eventually go, and went to town with the paint on Saturday.  You can see how much more of the paint that was originally under the numbers had come off in this next photo, and I took the globe into the house and washed it, and lo and behold, it's still pretty clear after all this time and looks WAY better than it did; i.e., when I thought it was yellow and cloudy with age, it was actually just filthy . . . :-D

Here's the back!  It could probably use another spray on the back - but I think I'll leave that for whoever the next person is who lives in this house.   I'll interject here to say that if you are ever spray-painting something, wear disposable rubber gloves.  It will save you from having to scrub your hands and wrists first with soap and water a few times, and then with nail polish remover and a pumice rock.  Ouch!

The new house numbers came Saturday later in the day, but I realized I needed to buy some small paint brushes, which didn't come until last night, so this morning I finished this job.  It was harder than I thought it would be to free-hand paint around and in between the numbers.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close, and it looks SO much better than it ever has!  

So, my house it stylin' for sure, and ready for the winter with it's refurbished coach light and driveway  :-)  

In case you were wondering, that hole in my lawn is a dry well.  There's a large cement circle in there, sitting on rebar.  It's a little sunken at the moment, so I should probably get a couple of bricks to even it up before winter comes.  The main sump pump ejects out from that corner of the house into a pipe under the driveway that empties into the dry well, which then empties out at the curb via another underground, angled pipe (to take advantage of gravity).  And that red tree is my Emperor Japanese Maple.  It's always pretty.  :-)  

I am struggling with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and what it means for our country.  I wrote these words earlier to a friend: "I’m just heartsick about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. I have felt for some time that she was just waiting until January once Biden is sworn in, to retire from the bench. The hypocrisy shown by the Republican party and the damage that will be done to women’s rights and affordable healthcare if this conservative woman is allowed on to the Supreme Court is more than I can understand. This and the fact that Medicare and Social Security will likely be gutted if 45 wins another term, are weighing heavily on me as I wonder what my future might look like without them. I try to give it up in prayer, but I’m really struggling as I watch our democracy crumbling around us …"

Can we reconcile and move forward together or is the hate that has been unleashed and legitimized by 45 more than we as a nation can carry?  I don't know, but I believe that Biden and Harris can unite us as few before have been able to, and that is my hope.  Early voting is starting now in some states.  Please vote in this general election - our very lives depend on it.

I do feel like we are on the edge of darkness - but this song will not leave me.  I hope its joyous message will carry us forward.