The Second Annual Dunwoody Pruning Party - Day 3

You may wonder why there was no post yesterday. There was no time and I was too tired.

Sherry and Ryan (my sister and her husband)arrived late Tuesday night. I was in bed but awake. I did not sleep well that night.

Wednesday morning, after breakfast, Ryan and I hopped in my truck to go to Home Depot and get some supplies. The first Orange Aproned Expert we asked for assistance was helpful. It was all down hill from there. We needed six landscape timbers to build up one of my raised beds. We needed two of them cut in half. This was not an impossible task, since I had had it done multiple times at this particular store.

Home Depot used to have the landscape timbers in 8 foot lengths and 4 foot lengths. Not anymore. Since my beds are 8 feet by 4 feet we need to have Home Depot cut them for us.

I purposely went to the Dunwoody store rather than the Doraville store, which is closer, because the Dunwoody store gives better service, or at least they used to.

The second Orange Aproned Expert, whom the first one had sent us to, said that she needed to find another Orange Aproned Expert to perform the task. In the meantime, we found the trash bags and the nails we needed.

We went back to the second Orange Aproned Expert and paid for everything. She still had not located the third Orange Aproned Expert who would do our cutting.

I went to get the truck. I drove to the area where the landscape timbers were and another Orange Aproned Expert told me I couldn't park there. Ryan told this Orange Aproned Expert that I wasn't planning to park there but I did need to have the truck close to the landscape timbers for ease of loading. He then asked her if traffic management was in her job description.

She informed him, somewhat curtly, that she was the manager of this particular department. Here we were able to observe the Peter Principle in action.

She told me I could park next to the timbers and we started loading the truck. We told her that we needed to have two of the timbers cut in half and she said that she didn't know if they could do that. I informed her that they had been able to do that last year and asked why it would be a problem this year.

She appeared flustered but found yet another Orange Aproned Expert who took two of the timbers and said he'd try to have them cut. While we were waiting, the Orange Aproned Expert manager, who was in a position beyond her abilities, told us we should call ahead the next time we needed this seemingly difficult, well nigh impossible, task performed. The other Orange Aproned Expert somehow managed to perform the seemingly difficult, well nigh impossible task and returned with the cut timbers. We now got underway on our next quest which was getting 12 bales of pine straw.

When we arrived at the pine straw truck there was a landscape guy with a trailor, a little old lady with the trunk of her car open, and us. Unfortunately, there was not a single Orange Aproned Expert to be found. The landscape guy said there were two of them when he arrived, but they disappeared as he was backing his trailor up to the truck.

After waiting for five minutes for someone to appear, Ryan and the landscape guy went inside to try to get some assistance.

My buddy, Wahoo, and I had this happen to us once before and rather than waiting, we loaded my truck ourselves and gave ourselves two extra bales for our efforts.

Ryan and the landscape guy returned and they decided to put the three bales the little old lady had bought in the trunk of her car so she could get on her way. The problem with her getting on her way, she informed us, was that she was not very good at backing up. Ryan said he would direct her.

He got behind her car and gave her the international symbol for backing up. She was doing fine until he gave her the international symbol for stopping which she ignored. He then gave her the English language symbol for stopping which is yelling "Stop!". She ignored that. He then was forced to give her the international panic symbol for stopping which entails hitting the trunk of the car while jumping out of the way and yelling "Stop!". That worked.

She was now far enough back to turn and make her merry way home with her load of pine straw.

We were still waiting for an Orange Aproned Expert.

One finally arrived and the landscape guy got his trailor loaded. Now all we had to do was wait for him to move so we could back up next to the truck and get loaded. Alas, the landscape guy did not immediately drive off. He decided to make a call on his cellphone. in the interest of safety he was probably a proponent of not driving while talking on a cellphone. Although this is good for safety, it sucks when other people are waiting for you to MOVE YOUR FARKING TRAILOR SO WE COULD GET SOME FARKING PINE STRAW!

Ryan gave him a dirty look and he decided that discretion was the better part of valor and he went on his merry way.

We got loaded up and we went on our merry way and drove back to GOC Central all the while thinking that next time we may go to Home Depot's major competitor.

After Ryan unloaded the truck it was time to start pruning. Ryan pruned; Sherry and I bagged. We worked for two hours, took a lunch break, and went back to work. We filled up another 20 bags.

Ryan spread the pine straw on the bare spots that I had weeded on the Great Berm of Dunwoody. With the weeding, the blooming thrift, and the pine straw, the Great Berm of Dunwoody looks better than it has in years. Ryan also built up the bed that I'm using for compost this year. We got everything accomplished that we had planned and it was a good thing we did.

After getting cleaned up, I cooked a steak dinner that couldn't be beat. We had smoked slamon as an appetizer. I grilled filet mignon, nuked baked potatoes in the microwave, tossed a salad, and cooked corn on the cob on the grill. I had previously opened and decanted a 1998 Gigondas. Ryan and I drank a nice Sauterne wine after dinner.

We all went to bed tired and sore but with full stomachs.

About 3:00 AM it began to rain. I slept through it but it woke up Ryan and Sherry. We had left the full bags of yard waste in the back yard. Ryan and Sherry moved them to the garage to get them out of the rain. It is supposed to rain the rest of the day and tonight so I won't be able to have them out for the trash pickup on Friday. My garage smells of eau de yard waste.

After breakfast, Ryan and Sherry headed back to Columbia in the rain. I went back to bed and took a nap.

I'm going to my friend Brian's for dinner tonight.

Posted by denny at March 31, 2005 02:45 PM