A Man of Vision

"Have you ever seen
Lonesome Dove?" our neighbor-
ing mason asked when he arrived Thursday to work at our place.


Being my journalist self, I'd started to ask him a bunch of questions

which spurred this one of his.

I shook my head and replied, "Not much, but bits and pieces."

"Well," Jack continued "There's a place at the end of the movie where (to the main character) a reporter shouts out: 'They say you're a man of vision. Is that true?' And he says, 'Yeah, one hellava vision.'

"You just relax, Wendy, because I have a vision here," our neighbor grinned. "You're gonna love it!"


Weeks ago,
Dan sought out Jack
to discuss
the drainage trouble
we have
behind the house
when rain pours
so fast that

it overflows
the gutters,

runs down the hill

and creates washouts
in our gravel driveway.

About a year after moving into our house (in 1998), we had a very wet summer.

During a particular downpour, rain overflowed the gutters, puddled behind the house and caused flooding in our basement.


Since then we've diligently cleared our gutters with the onset

of every rain which washes debris from the roof into the gutters.

There's nothing quite like jumping out of bed a 2 AM, climbing a ladder, and sweeping maple flowers, seeds or leaves from the gutter downspouts while rain pours, thunder booms and lightning flashes overhead.

As a temp-
orary fix, we leaned long boards against the house creating a slope to carry water away from the foundation.

And during July's 6-inch downpour, the boys and I dug out sloping channels to empty pools that started to form.


We explained all this to Jack noting,

we'd rather not have those kinds of worries.


After weighing many options, we decided to take solid action. We hoped to slope the ground away from the foundation, put down cement and form a trough underneath the roof gutters.


We wanted
to build up
the incline
behind the house
to get rid of
the deep ruts
and
maybe
even
lay a pad
in front of
the porch where
we park the car
to unload groceries.


With those instruc-
tions, Jack began to envision a "master
piece" using the "greatest substance in the world."

"No, not TAR!"
the mason corrected Noah.

"That's a naughty word around here.

"It's called CONCRETE or CEMENT."

Jack, his two crew members and three cement truck drivers worked together to make the vision come true.


Being

A
Man
of
Vision,

Jack
returned
for
finishing
work
TODAY...




...which
happens
to be
our
17th
Wedding
Anni-
versary.






He's right:



We
DO
love
it!



Now where do we get a hold of Lonesome Dove?