Home Improvement

Our gate has been broken for awhile now. We called and asked about getting it fixed recently, and our landlord said he'd send the handyman in the next couple of weeks. Okay. Sounds good.

Tonight, we heard a neighbor's truck start up, back up, and then we heard a loud CRACK! Oh my.

We opened the front door. I was expecting to see a truck sticking out of the side of the apartment... it wouldn't be the first time, actually. (The last time a truck crashed into my house, I was in High School and it made front page news in our little town.)

When we stepped outside, the neighbor's truck was back in its spot, but we heard the neighbor dropping rather vehement F-bombs. "Yup, I'd say he did back into something," I said to Kennan.

The neighbor, who moved in a couple of weeks ago and we hadn't yet met, came running over, apologizing and cursing profusely. I was hard pressed not to laugh, just because the entire thing seemed rather surreal. I was also grateful that it wasn't me for once! Our neighbor, though, was hopping up and down and was very upset. Apparently, he was in a hurry. And I have to admit that it is a tight squeeze, especially for a large truck.

Kennan examined the gate, and found a medium-sized split in the wood. No biggie. It was easy enough for Kennan to snap it back into place. We chatted with the neighbor a second, asked if he was okay, and helped him back out without hitting anything. Then we discovered a most amazing thing.

Our gate is fixed.

Completely fixed. It doesn't sag anymore, it latches, and it looks just fine.

What a scream! If only all home improvement were so easy.

On a related note, our tomatoes and catnip are flourishing. Yay! I think we'll have to buy a trellis soon. Sadly, our cilantro (NOT for salsa, just for Indian Dal lentils, thank you very much) is being munched upon by some wretched little creature-bug type of thing. I mourn for thee, cilantro! You were so bright, so green, so healthy! Rest in Peace, dear cilantro. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

Maybe if we get the neighbors to come stomp on the plant, it would miraculously kill the bugs and reanimate the cilantro. Hmmmm...