It’s Friday and our “Spring” has morphed into “Summer.” We have the same cold and rainy weather in Humptulips County that we’ve had all Spring, but now we call it “Summer” due to the rotation and tilt of the earth. This may well be a year with no Summer except in name only.
However, it is Friday and while the clouds are still roiling above, the prospect of the weekend looms and somehow the weather is more bearable. For we have a new driveway at the farm and I am looking forward to having the time to walk it. Well, not “new” in the sense of freshly situated and newly plowed for the first time, but “new” in the sense of re-graded and re-graveled. The old driveway location remains, but it has been resurfaced in a sparkling new coat of gravel fines all rolled in by professionals. And the rain – the dreadful, constant rain – has actually served to set the fines and firm their placement, thereby serving our purposes well.
As with any new road, my initial walk will be one of discovery. The discoveries to be made will certainly not be of grand scale since the driveway still leads, inevitably, to the mailbox and back to the house, but the new gravel and the new high and low places have given it a new character to be learned. By the simple means of driving to and from work, I already know that the driveway has a more urban quality that its former iteration. The gravel on the old driveway was larger and the roadway potholed from several year’s usage. This iteration is of finer, well-rolled gravel, which gives the roadway a more tailored aspect. The driveway’s new character is more that of high hat and tails than jeans and down-at-heel boots. I no longer have to do the left hand turn by the third pine on the right to avoid the biggest pothole. In fact, I don’t have to do anything but drive the middle of the driveway’s gentle curve for there are no potholes or proto-potholes to avoid.
At least, for the moment there aren’t. Potholes will come in time as they always do on roads well traveled. They will come and they will redefine my driveway from high hat and tails to rural funk – just as the driveway’s former version underwent the identical transformation. For I remember the prior version’s sparkling new state, just as I remember its spent old age.
The nice thing about driveways and other forms of roads, is that even when well travelled and familiar they can become new and intriguing places for inspection and discovery. All it takes is a little grading and a little fresh topping appropriate to the road’s principal use. The very fact of its static quality as a driveway allows for a periodic refreshment by means of the expenditure of a small amount of money and some time and effort carefully applied. Would that the same were were true for living organisms.
Perhaps it is because I spent time with my doctor this week that I am looking forward to rediscovering my driveway this weekend. I like the thought of having to reacquaint myself with a newly refurbished constant in my life. My doctor told me nothing bad, so I have no health scare. In fact, she and her companion physical therapist have offered me the first glimpse of a life free of leg pains that have lessened my walks on my farm and, therefor, my enjoyment of it. So, to me, the driveway’s newness seems almost to be an augury of a shining new future for a well-used body.
It’s a Friday in a decidedly early Spring-like Summer, and the prospect of living in Humptulips County remains glorious – even under sodden clouds – for I have a new driveway to walk and the prospect of doing so on fresh legs.
