July 8, 2020 - 299 - "Gateway to My Birthday"

About 20 Years Ago...

I bought this garden gate:

Here's a picture of it with more detail:

   Isn't it soooo cute?!

   It was one of those things I saw and HAD TO HAVE.  That's not my usual thing.  I usually am more of a..."Well...let me see if I still want this next week.'-sort of buyer.  I will hem and haw and delay and tell myself why I don't need something for weeks, months, and even years.

   But, I saw this and bought it right away. I thought:  EVERYONE will want MY GATE!  I have to buy it RIGHT NOW, or it will sell out, and I will regret it forever.  

       I put it on a credit card and sent my entire mid-month paycheck in to cover it...and part of my next check for the shipping and handling (which was a lot because it's so HEAVY).  

A Gate Without A Home

      When I got the gate, we owned the house next to us.  (It was thrown in with the deal when we bought ours, way back when the neighborhood was street after street of derelict houses.)  We were using the back yard of that house so we had a big garden and there was a perfect place to put this gate.  

       After restoring our house, we didn't think our nerves, or our marriage, could handle resuscitating yet another condemned house, so we eventually sold that house.

       That left the gate homeless.  I couldn't quite picture it in the middle of our small backyard.  For a long time, it sat in our garage.  

     Then when I ruthlessly cleared that out, it got moved to our patio.  I figured it would make me get around to putting it somewhere.

Time Went On...

    Between working and weddings and grandbabies...  Sickness and health, travel, and one thing and another...  Then buying a house in Mexico to redo, then selling that.  Then buying another place in Mexico that needed even more redoing.  And, well, this, that, and, ya know...the other...   

     The gate just sat and sat and became more and more invisible.  

    But, somewhere along the way, I started thinking the gate might look nice in this sideyard area: 

Then Michael Had a Lapse in Judgment...
     

     He asked me what I'd like for my birthday.  (Foolish man, he's made this mistake before.).  I said I'd like him to get that gate installed.  Michael got that 'What have I done?' look on his face.  

      With good reason.  We'd hit road blocks in that project more than once.  We tried to get posts for it before, but the guy I'd asked made it seem like it would a) cost a fortune b) be incredibly difficult since the gate was so heavy, and c) not be worth his trouble.  Michael had asked around for recommendations for places that could do it before, without much luck.  And if you ask around our neighborhood an no one has good ideas...it's as good as saying it's impossible because the entire district is one big ongoing live-action DIY show.

     Luckily, this time Michael found a metal place that some good ideas for a relatively simple approach to getting the job done.  

     There was still the matter of getting it cleaned up and refinished, digging the holes, mixing cement, setting the posts, and then mounting the thing... 

      My birthday is in July, and we live in Texas, so none of this was fun.  

     I'm guessing he wished he'd just gone out and gotten me something on his own.  

But Wow!  It Turned Out So Cool!

It looks crooked in this picture but really is
perfectly level, thanks to Michael. 

We're Spending a Lot of Time Admiring It

     We've been playing around with putting various spotlights on it at night.  We both agree that it looks great in all light...at all times of day. 

     Ironically, they didn't run out of gates.  That exact gate is still available today.  

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"The world is all gates, all opportunities, 

strings of tension waiting to be struck."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"There are three hundred and sixty-four days 

when you might get un-birthday presents, 

and only one for birthday presents, you know."

-Lewis Carroll

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"To me - old age is always ten years older than I am."

-Bernard Baruch

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"Love the giver more than the gift."

-Brigham Young

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