One thing that will get me out of bed in a hurry is the beeping of a truck in my driveway at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. I sprang to the shutter and threw up… no, I cracked the mini-blinds and espied an XYZ Rock & Sand truck backing toward my garage door, then moving forward as it covered the muddy depressions with gravel.

My first thought: My landlords have found my diary, because I complained about this in an entry just a couple of days ago. Second thought: The reason I complained was that it had rained for three days in a row, and the reason they sent the gravel was that it had rained for three days in a row.

The truck left the gravel there, and when I took a close-up look later in the morning, I was slightly dismayed to discover that I had to do my own grading. I mean, I'm no engineer, but I do believe that it's asking for trouble to create a mud reservoir just in front of the door, so that when the rain accumulates it washes into the garage and drowns my books, records and videos.

So I grabbed a shovel and rake. The rake wasn't much use, since it's a flimsy leaf rake. My heavy rake was one of the things left behind the last time I moved, along with the washer-dryer that I still haven't been paid for. I used the shovel to even out some of the high and low spots, but it wasn't a very satisfactory solution.

That's why I was happy when the two landlords showed up later in the afternoon and spread the gravel out more evenly. I didn't tell them I'd tried to do it myself, and they didn't notice.

Now that I can walk from the garage to the house without traipsing through the mud, my next project will be to get them to fill the major holes in the driveway. Funny, isn't it, how the puddles last the longest in the areas that get the least sun.

That was the case with the spot they covered with rock yesterday, and it's also the case with the part of the driveway nearest the road. It lies under the biggest oak trees, and it also happens to be where my mailbox is located, so a trip to get the mail involves unavoidable muck and mire.

Someday all these petty problems will be solved. For now, I'm just happy to have some small relief from the ravages of winter.

I never get tired of the sunsets here.

I hope no one else does, either. Sometimes it's the best I've got.