House arrest begins

Ever since I moved in here at The Palace there's been discussion about the road that leads from the main street down to our building. It's been battle-scarred by years of wear 'n tear plus tree roots pushing the asphalt up, like driving on a bombing range. I attribute many of my former car's aches and pains to this very rough terrain. Some of my neighbors have wanted to resurface our parking areas but I was resistant to such since it was pristine compared to the road coming down here. 

5 guys and one jack hammer began process of breaking up the raised paver area, quite the wake-up call this a.m.

Now, we are having it all done at once and with much less cost than expected, due to The Club having paving work performed. With some arm twisting, the other two associations that use the same road as The Club and us agreed to pitch in for the repaving, and away we go!

Since our access in and out was going to be extremely limited plus our parking area under construction, we had to park elsewhere. Plans were made for us Palace residents to park at Winn Dixie, which is way too far away for most of us. My neighbor, Rosemary, said she'd go and get my car for me if I wanted to go away but I'd still have to hike up the hill to the main street. My upstairs neighbor arranged for us to park at his church which was closer and on this side of Hwy. 17, but still about 5 blocks away. My other neighbor arranged for parking at her office which is about the same distance away the other direction. I asked the Chef if I could park at the tennis courts and just leave my car there, and he said, "Absolutely!", so that's what we did. I can see my car from my front door, on the far side of the pools. 

Here's the giant scraper that removed the layers of blacktop. This was only one of several pieces of equipment used for the job. One machine pounded the area where they had begun with the jackhammer. The pounding shook the building, rattling the pretties in my kitchen window!

Yesterday Terri told Gretchen that I was going to be a shut-in due to this resurfacing and Gretchen laughed until she nearly cried. She just couldn't believe this was happening. I am so glad that Gretchen had a good belly laugh over my situation! She called in the late afternoon to talk to me about it, that sweetheart. 

Justin had made plans to stay at Jesse's so he could get to work but he was making sure I had enough food to sustain me. He really didn't have to be worried about me, I have food in the freezer and lots of neighbors! We stocked up at Winn Dixie on the basics and ordered pizza for dinner so I'd have plenty of leftovers from that. I am going to be just fine. 

Let the adventure begin!