They say we have two seasons here: winter and road construction.

It's been a month or more that they've been tearing up our streets. Throughout our neighborhood they're working on sewers and water mains, and since they're underground, they're doing some gas line maintenance, too. It's been tricky driving through the neighborhood with all of the moving road closures and areas blocked because of big holes. They do fill in the big holes each day, or cover them with huge metal plates, or both. But then it's pavement to dirt and back before the back tires hit.

Yesterday they "finished" with our street. They peeled back a bunch of the blacktop around the holes they'd been working in, really filled them in good, stomping them down with a giant hammer, and then covered them with new blacktop. To make this happen, they blocked both sides of our street with "no parking" signs. We weren't warned that this would be the day, so we didn't prepare with room behind our garage. The trailer is out, and the garage is cluttered so it won't fit in. The clutter also blocks a vehicle from parking in the garage. There's room on the paddock to put two things, so one Jeep and a trailer it is.

This meant my Jeep had to park at the end of the block. Not a big deal, as it isn't far, but we also can't see it, which is weird now. There's a tiny lingering concern because people are messing with cars at night, and while we aren't keeping guard, it seems nicer when they're closer. The doorbell camera can see them, but there isn't enough light at that range to see people walking around them at night. We learned, when they got into one and stole the other in 2020, that we can see the lights, even if we can't see the people. That's some comfort.

The end of the block is a little nicer 'cause it's covered with a big shady tree for most of the day. A bit of the evening when the sun passes at the right angle to poke through the gap at the intersection let the sunshine in, but the rest of the time, the trees on the corner property shade that end pretty nicely. The car belonging to the neighbor at that corner of our block is always parked on that street to the side of their house, instead of in front like the rest of us do when we street park. Now I know why; where her car was parked is shaded all the time.

After they were done filling the holes with blacktop, they took away the "no parking" signs from our side of the street, but left them on the other. They also surrounded the fresh areas, which looked patchwork because it's clean and neat but seamed-up pretty well and seems pretty flat, with those blinking street barriers, so there's not room to park anyway. So I'll put my Jeep at the end again. The garage got a little clean-up, but we've moved enough stuff around for our camping trip that there still isn't room for a vehicle or trailer in the garage.

The trailer needs to be cleaned out anyway. We need to pull the tent out from our camping trip, as we hastily piled it into the trailer when we left. It needs to be pulled out and properly packed, or who knows what weird creases and holes will appear. We should probably check the rain cover and make sure those seams are sealed, too. It's been a bit busy and hot, though, so the energy and time just aren't there.

Everyone's healthy.