
This is not a "Why did the chicken cross the road story?" as no chickens are crossing the road; the chickens are safe in my garage awaiting the arrival of their new coop.
No, this is the story of my road, officially known as "Dusty Lane", as named by father for reasons unknown roundabouts 11 years ago. Dad could have named the road anything when Linn decided to allow its good people to name their gravel roads for ambulance location purposes, but Dad chose Dusty Lane, filled out the form, and sent it back to Linn without a word to anyone. After my father passed away shortly sometime therafter, my Mom called to tell me when she got the acceptance notice from Linn - "Do you know what your Dad did? He named our road Dusty Lane, and didn't tell me about it! " Such was Dad.
Any who, the road is not particularly Dusty. And Lane - well, Lane, sounds a bit nicer than the reality, but Dusty Lane it is now. I have to admit it is much better than the "Rte. 294-A" that I used to walk home from school on, plagued by grasshoppers in August, snow in January, and the oh so exciting days when the "creek was up."
I have many memories of the road, and I spent a lot of time contemplating life to the sound of the crunching gravel under my feet as I walked home. It was the location of my first car accident, when I took out a fence post (or 2) at age 16, and my Mom and I spent a fair amount of time sitting at the top of the road waiting for the school bus in the mornings and listening to the oldies.
My latest memory of the road is the subject of my first blog post. I have fought the road, and the road has won. You see, the road is a chat road. I don't know anything about chat, despite my years as a Geology major @ BGSU. All I know is that chat does not stay in the road in some spots, creating dips and puddles when it rains. Also, chat appears to run off the road in certain spots, most likely carried away by snow plows and various earthly elements. This has led to a situation where I have large piles of chat in SPOT A and no chat in SPOT B.
Chicken Lawyer Bright Idea Time: I can take my handy shovel, and move the chat in SPOT A to SPOT B, thus solving 2 problems in one swell swoop, and that sounds like really good exercise, too!
I, being the Chicken Lawyer, with great passion and enthusiasm, left my lawyer desk and dusted off my shovel. And, I shoveled. I filled up my little shovel and carried that chat several feet from SPOT A to SPOT B many times. Many, many times. For sure enough times that there ought to be some progress at the sites of SPOT A and B. Alas, SPOT A is still chatty and Spot B is still puddley. The sun setting, my wrist hurting, I headed in, defeated by the road, enthusiasm for my Chicken Lawyer Bright Idea greatly waned.
I may tackle the road again soon, but tonight I wanted to say Hi! to my chickens and get some blogging done! Thanks for reading. I don't know if I even turned on the features that allow you to comment a la a usual Blog, but if you can, I would love to hear from you.
Take care now, The Chicken Lawyer