Right Tool for the Job

No man is a failure who is enjoying life. ~William Feather, American publisher and author

When my sis and I were little, we got together with two kids next door and decided to dig to China.

We’d never been to China. We didn’t know anyone over there.

But it seemed like a worthwhile endeavor. Something we all could do without bothering our folks.

Armed with a small shovel, we commenced to turn over the earth in a spot somewhere along our adjoining property line.

When one got tired, another would take over.

Now it seems a shame to dig up perfectly good Kentucky Bluegrass on a whim, but back then, we had a goal.

Finding China.

What we were going to do when we found it was never considered.

So we pressed on.

The deeper we dug, the blacker the soil and the more interesting the creatures we found.

Lots of earthworms, probably wondering why four kids were interfering with their aereating.

As summer turned into fall and we all headed back to school, we abandoned the dig. It wouldn’t be long before we had to focus on homework and eventually, winter snow would make the soil too hard to remove with a mere shovel.

As I recall, the hole remained, testament to four kids’ ambitious hopes. It was perhaps a foot deep and no wider at its surface than another foot.

But we’d had fun, and none of our parents dared fill the hole.

Fast forward to today.

I looked outside and was surprised to find this parked at my curb:

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The city’s street department has been doing some work in our neighborhood.

Digging up huge slabs of street, repairing what’s beneath, pouring concrete, resurfacing with fresh oil and rock chips, and replacing some worn sidewalks along the way.

It’s an interesting process, but even more interesting was the sudden realization that we kids were doomed to fail at digging to China. We just didn’t have the right equipment.

We needed one of these thingamajigs instead!