October 14, 2026
I am delighted to report that
a slice of normalcy has returned to the life of yours truly. On October 10th
and the first time since August of 2025, I now have a clear, safe path from the
bottom of my porch steps to the street in front of my house.
Last weekend our son, and one
of our grandsons (our son’s nephew) worked together to install metal railings:
one for the single step down from the new concrete pad at the base of our porch
to the next level; two on either side of the two concrete steps down to the
bottom concrete pad that ends with a drop curb at the street; and one long new hand
railing down the wooden porch steps.
That last replaces the wooden
hand railing my husband made when he installed the first set of porch steps a
few years back. I was grateful for that hand-made railing, of course, but it
was so wide a board that it was impossible to wrap my hand around it. And, in
winter, my right glove always got wet because while the porch steps are
maintained cleared of snow, no one ever thought to brush off that darn railing.
Our son also did one other
thing while he was here. He brought his power washer and washed those porch steps.
This was done so that we could make one more improvement, one that will be done
within the next few days: installing non-slip treads to the wooden steps. These
are adhesive treads, but David will reinforce the adhesive by using his
heavy-duty staple gun to ensure those treads remain in place.
Last Saturday, I waited until
all the rails were installed, and the kind workers had left; I waited a little
longer until daughter and husband were both napping. Then I went outside, and
walked from porch to road and back again, all by myself.
Hallelujah! Independence!
I probably won’t go out every
day; I may not go out more than once a week. But now if I want to, I
can. I no longer have to impose on anyone else to assist me to and from my car.
And that’s all that matters to me.
I do tend not to drive much in
the winter. Our daughter will, as she did last year, move my car once a week.
Daughter will park in our single spot in front of the house—at my
insistence—because she goes to work most every day. It wouldn’t be right to
leave my car in that spot when I may not go out on any given day. However, if
there is a need for me to do so, then before she leaves for work in the
morning, she’ll see to it my car is there for me. That system worked well for
us last year. Well, until January 12th when there was so much snow
and ice everywhere that I was unable to get off my property, period. That
situation lasted until the first week of March.
Currently our daughter’s car
is parked in our driveway each night. The driveway is accessed off the cross
street on the southwest side of our house. That street is a steep hill; and in
winter it’s one of the first streets in town to get plowed, which makes that
driveway prone to being plowed in. And since there is no one in this
house able to dig out a driveway? It gets “closed” at the first sign of an
incoming snowfall.
Also, as it turns out, the
gate that gives access from the yard to the driveway freezes shut each winter.
That’s not a problem in one respect, because we’ve always considered that
driveway to be for fair-weather use only. It is a slight problem, in that
during the winter months we also cannot use the back gate for setting out the
trash on that side street for weekly pickup.
The good news is that since
our house is on a corner, we can also set the trash out in front of the house.
The inconvenient news is that during the winter, our trash containers are therefore
stationed on the front porch.
There may come a day when home
improvements are made so that the back gate doesn’t freeze shut. It would be a
greater problem if that gate were to freeze open, because our backyard
is used by the dogs—or by us, for putting the critters outside and out of the
way from time to time. An open gate would make that impossible.
But until such a time as we
can get those improvements done, we’ll simply do what we always do. We’ll improvise,
adapt and overcome.
If that’s good enough for the
U. S. Marines, it’s certainly good enough for us.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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