A couple weeks ago I finished knocking out most of the sidewalk and brought in a guy to grind the huge catalpa stumps. There was just one last stubborn section of sidewalk connected to the entire wheelchair accessible corner slab the city put in last year. I didn’t want to just start hacking at it with the sledge hammer for fear of damaging the corner piece in some way. I had to make a cut where the sidewalk meets the corner and so I rented a hand-held concrete saw.

And cut it, I did. I’m not going to lie, it was scary. The saw was loud, heavy and the centrifugal force of the blade spinning at the speed of light makes the slightest movement side-to-side quite precarious.

I don’t know what that lady in the background is looking at, I guess she’s never seen awesome before. Just kidding, she’s our neighbor. She’s nice.

Oh yeah, check out that smoke! That’s business happening right there.

I sliced that concrete up like a piece of pie to make it easier to knock out…or so I thought.

Oh mama, look at that sweet, sweet cut.

Now to pop out that 6 ft by 6 ft slab and be inside in time for lunch. Nooooooooo problem, here we go…wait, what the….

…oh I see, the city crew decided not to follow its own rules and poured the concrete between 6 and 8 inches thick. And there’s river rock in there, so it’s extra hard. Lovely. 5 hours later, yeah that’s right FIVE HOURS LATER, I’m finally finished knocking out 234 sq ft of sidewalk with nothing by a sledge hammer, a pry bar and my arms.

That deserves a celebration…

…what the hell has happened to me?