Wood Thief

Sunday, June 06, 2021   (June’s full [“Strawberry”] moon rises in 18 days, on the 24th.)

Recently my plumber, installing a new frost-free hydrant, asked if I had a few feet of scrap 4×4, to stabilize the upright pipe part. I looked around and found all my unused leftovers gone, except for one piece of 6×6 halfway stuck into the ground. “That works,” said the plumber, adding, “Good that you didn’t have to go out and buy a post, considering today’s lumber costs.”

During property repairs, pieces of scrap wood commonly are needed.

A couple weeks ago, I discovered, knocked over, a tall “no parking” sign, one that long had guarded the shoulder alongside my property. The sign, of eight or ten feet of non-rotten post, clearly had been broken-off violently. I didn’t see any signs in the dirt of tire tracks, and took photos to submit to authorities.

Who are the authorities? The County? The City? Oregon Department of Transportation? And would any care about an old county sign?

The current local news was reporting a high-speed police chase through this and neighboring communities. That drunken or drug-sodden driver had caused a string of damages throughout the chase. That might have been why the broken sign, but oddly, no tire tracks.

As a side note, the spot where that sign stood for years isn’t where a sensible driver would park.

A couple of weeks passed, no indication of outside interest in the broken sign. Meanwhile, my interest had grown, and so I returned for a closer look. Extending from its broken base was a long piece of 4×4 treated lumber in good condition. I went away wondering, how prosecutable would be removing an ineffective “no parking” sign?

Soon and remembering the plumber, I bit the bullet and drove my Gater to the sign. It wasn’t much trouble ripping away a few clinging base-wood threads, but I was challenged to heft the twice-as-tall-as-me post onto the Gater bed. As I worked, a nagging worry was of road-passers perceiving a heist.

Anyway it’s done. There’s a salvaged 4×4 stored on my Ranchero, to assist a future repair.

Dear Friends: Skyrocketing prices may affect everyday behavior in ways that’ll surprise. Diana