End of Driveway Excitement

We now have this at the end of our driveway. Such progress! For the past six months, we realized the inevitability of construction lapping at the end of our driveway as the town crew moved slowly up Jeremy Swamp Road. They seem to be hopping all over the place: first one end, then a centerish (disconnected piece) and then our end- skipping the middle... Promptly at 6:30 every morning, the booming and beeping and pinging and LOUD GUY TALK would filter up the driveway from the street. We're fortunate that our house is set back from the road! (We hear it anyway.)
This greeted me when I attempted to leave the driveway yesterday morning:

I could barely squeeze past, and this was in addition to both of our next door neighbor's cars (waiting for the school bus) and a large dump truck and the aforementioned bus. Quite the busy intersection! I had remembered to bring my camera along so I snapped these pictures. As I said to the amused town crew guys, "How often do I have this much activity at the end of the driveway?" Everyone seemed busy staring into the big hole...

(That's the police officer bending over. Nice shorts.)
In any event, I don't know that we needed a wider road or so many attractive drains and pipes added to our lives, and as a friend suggested, it will only permit more traffic and people and their cars to attain higher speeds. It's already dangerous walking up our road to the dirt road where I walk most mornings. Here are the drain basins:

This was the right side of the driveway. It was like this for the entire Labor Day weekend. I guess the chains were there to discourage us from stealing the cement forms.
The weird upshot of all this construction was that I chose to take lil' Robin the Good on an alternative walk. I bundled her into the car (good practice for her auto-phobia!) and drove her three minutes up the road to the State Bridle Trail, where we've been walking every day since. And it's beautiful! Wide and quiet and winding through some amazing properties. Robin seems to enjoy this walk more than the dirt road, so it's our new routine.
One last shot. Y'know, this equipment is really big!

Three Tee Shirt Day and Plumbing Made Simple

It's the day before my birthday, we're expecting company for dinner and damn! the downstairs bathroom sink won't drain. (Even the red rubber fish seems to be avoiding the sink.) Two days ago, I noticed that when I washed my hands and left the bathroom, the sink was full of water. Ditto an hour later. I went promptly into avoidance as I felt badly telling Bob, who probably gets stuck with more of those odious household jobs than I do.
But no elves or even orcs came to snake out the drain and our guests were still on target to arrive later today, so I did a heroic thing (even for myself). I actually told Bob to show me how to clean the drain. Yes, the day before my birthday on a truly three tee shirt kind of day (humid and just a tad above 100 degrees on the thermometer) we rolled up our sleeves (metaphorically as I wasn't wearing any) and the adventure began.

This is what it looks like underneath. Innocent enough, until you start unscrewing the plastic fittings and discover what's inside.
This:

Yup, that dingle berry of astonishing proportions is slime-ing its way out of the pipe as soon as it's removed. Hands, wrists are soon coated in an evil pudding of brown glop, composed of us and our lovely remains. (Human and dog hair skin, plant material and just plain dirt.) Check out Bob's hand in the sink:

Oh boy! Sure makes you never want to eat again! But hell, we're made of sterner stuff and I took all the parts outside and hosed them down. Refitting was cleaner but tricky as you have to thread the underneath parts of the plunger/drain blocker into a little hole and it's all upside down and backwards. Upon clean up, the sink ran and drained beautifully and I gained a skill and Bob is exonerated from having to unblock the drain next time.
Of course, I had to go change my tee shirt again but we all repaired to the air conditioned bed room, to wait for dinner guests who can now wash their hands in a clean and functional bathroom.