Happiest Moments

When my children were young, I would often ask them, "What was your favorite part of today?" as I tucked them into bed. They would tell me things like "going out for ice cream," "seeing the movie Aladdin," or "playing in the new park." We would talk for a few moments before saying good night.

Now that they are grown and live on their own, I have forgotten how good it is to reflect on my favorite part of the day at day's end. Not too long ago, I took on a project to repair my brick patio, which had become sunken around the edges. The previous Summer, my neighbor Darrow, a home building contractor, helped me repair the brick steps to the patio. He told me, "It's not hard to repair the patio. You just need to take up the bricks and number them, then reapply the..." I zoned out at that point, but optimistically figured it was something I could do. I liked numbering things and was a big fan of Lego bricks, so I thought I was qualified, right?

I decided to take a couple of days off before the long Memorial Day weekend to tackle the project, which I figured would be easy. I took out all the bricks from a 5 by 14 foot section of the patio and laid them out in the same pattern elsewhere on the patio. I brushed off sand and dirt from each brick and numbered the underside with chalk, pretending to be an archeologist on a dig. That part was fun. Then I went to Home Depot and bought the requisite pavement material and sand to go under the bricks.

All I needed to do before I finished was talk to my neighbor again to discuss the procedure. He kindly came over and explained the method of removing the old material, leveling the surface under the bricks using 1-inch pipes, a 2 x 4 board, and... At that point, I knew I was in over my head. "Could you do the job and I could pay you?" I asked, desperately. "I just don't have the time," he apologized. "I'm booked with jobs already. But you can use all my tools."

After a bit of a stunned moment in realizing there was no turning back, I could only say, "Um...Okay."

Darrow followed through on giving me the tools I needed, including the pipes and 2 x 4 board. I actually took my time and listened to his instructions, and started to work. It ended up being not so terrible. I'm sure Darrow would have done a better job, but the gratification of leveling and re-laying the bricks myself and seeing it finished after a few hours made it a favorite part of my day.

Epilogue: Later in the summer, I hired Darrow to fix another side of the patio that required new foundation bricks. Although I helped a little, it was a job that I am definitely glad I left to a professional.

Both of these photos are of my patio after my and Darrow's fixes. On left was taken after it rained.