Losing a friend, driveway sealing, Mama’s craft

Unless by a miracle of God’s healing grace one of our church friends recovers, we will lose one of our him to COVID related complications today. Jerry, the husband of our organ player went to the hospital with pneumonia Saturday a week ago and his condition steadily worsened. Tuesday, they put him on a ventilator and yesterday started dialysis because his kidneys were failing. His heart is failing as well so it is only a matter of time until he finished his journey home. He will be missed. Our church family has one other of our older men, also in his mid-sixties, in the hospital. He is doing somewhat better but is still in grave danger of succumbing to the side effects of COVID related pneumonia. It is during times like these that the unsaved world wonders at our profound hope in the Lord. This world is not our home. We are just passing through. It will not be too long until we see Jerry again, but his loss to us in this life is a sad loss. It is certainly a sad loss to his wife, his children, and his grandchildren.

A couple days ago Mama and I were talking again about sealing the driveway. It has been on her mind – her priority list – for many months. Not so much for me due to the expense and high labor requirement. So, to avoid having to do the work myself, I looked up a company in Weatherford and Mama called them to get an estimate. The man making the bid to do the service to the driveway and apply the sealant gave Mama a price that I thought was fair: not cheap, but fair, so I agreed to have the work done. I am not overly thrilled about spending the money in this way, but in the long run I will come around to Mama’s way of thinking.

we did spend a fair amount of money having the driveway blacktopped several years ago, it makes sense to take care of our investment. We have a very large driveway, several hundred feet in length with a twelve-foot width in front of the house that is about seventy feet in length. It is a lot of area to cover. Therefore, the price is fairly high. Mama was told that the work they are doing today should last us five to seven years. Versus doing all that work myself, (at about half the cost) it is probably worth the price of both their labor and the upgraded materials they have access to to get the job professionally done.

I was a little intrigued by the quick over-the-phone estimate Mama was given for the work. So, I asked her if the man giving the quote understood the amount of area they were going to have to cover. Mama assured me that he did. He looked up our property on Google Maps and was able to determine from that the extent of the blacktop he was going to have to cover. Interestingly enough, about a year ago we got a drive-by quote – for much less – from a man that wanted to do the sealing of the driveway. For those of you who know where we live, he had to be very deliberate to do his drive-by estimate. At the time we did not have the money available. He had also found us on Google Maps. I suppose there really is nowhere to hide these days.

Mama is headed to Kimberlyn’s today. The two of them are making little boxes of goodies to sell at Trade Days this weekend. The boxes will contain a small candle, a lip balm, some sugar scrub and several other sundry items. They should do well with that type of marketing. I am not sure what else they are taking to sell, but the weather will be great. Warm, but not too hot. I am not sure how much the little boxes will cost but I am praying that they sell out quickly.

Since I am working from home, I will be staying here to oversee the driveway work and write the check. We will not be able to drive on the new sealant until Friday evening. It is a rubberized coating that will take some time to cure. Having to find places to park other than in the driveway will not be an issue for us. Keeping the dogs off the new sealant will be a huge issue for us. We have no place to keep our free-range dogs that would not drive both them an us crazy for the requested timeframe. Hopefully, that will not interfere with the work being done.

A few paw prints should not affect the overall quality of the work.