Last winter the Boss’s unwieldy son Tim brought me a load of gravel and had one of his minions spread it around the driveway. He was being nice, but they did a lousy job. The gravel was too fine and ended up sinking into the mud. Plus, he started at the wrong end of the drive and used too much of it there, leaving little for the other end where the real mud problems were. Are. Still are.

So when Tim called today to badger me about some problem or other, I casually mentioned that my driveway was muddy again. We have had so much rain this week that it’s as bad as it was at its worst last winter, and this winter is still two days away from starting. The storm that blew through Sunday has gone, but there hasn’t been a totally dry day yet this week, and more rain is predicted from now until the final gun (or at least the two-minute warning).

It’s not that I was demanding, but I hinted that if he wanted to do me another favor, maybe this time he should bring bigger rock, and more of it. I told him that the only places that are really bad are where he ran out of gravel last time. He still might not ask me where I want it to go, but this time I have sense enough to tell him (since he doesn’t have sense enough to know).

It’s not as if he’s actually doing me a favor, although that’s what he’d like me to think. He’s getting paid for his time, and so is his helper. The company is paying for the rock, and the fuel to get it here, and any meals (or beverages) they have on the way. It’s actually a pretty good use of his time, since I’m the one who signs his paycheck. Yesterday, in fact, he seemed so worried that this week’s checks wouldn’t get to him on time that I made a special trip, out in the rain, to the post office on its busiest day of the year.

So yeah, do me a favor. Just don’t expect me to get all starry-eyed.

Bitter? Me? Heck no. I’m just tired, and sick of the rain. Somehow it has driven ants into my house again. I found them crawling up and down the inside partition between my kitchen and the desk where I work. And they were all over the desk, so I couldn’t ignore them. I think I got them all, but I have no idea where they came from. There were none on the kitchen side of the wall, and that wall is nowhere near an outside entrance. Unless they came in through a crack in the ceiling and walked all the way across a beam, I’m mystified.

And winter doesn’t even get here for two more days. That’s the part that really depresses me. That and the sickly sweet smell of unscented Raid.