We live on an arterial street that turns dramatically at our corner and heads up a long hill into a greenbelt. It means that our view is pleasant and that the whole neighborhood is aware of our project, and that people routinely crash their cars into our fence.

Since Morgan has lived here people have probably crashed at least 15-20 times, usually just one-car accidents but at least once smashing into a car heading up the hill. We have erected a big rock to try to stop the fence-smashing, and it works but has meant we’ve had to reposition the rock several times after it gets knocked over. It’s not an easy task.

Last year we placed a second big rock on the corner hoping to protect our water meter from the big trucks that were driving over it and slowly destroying it. This rock is too heavy for us to lift, but was recently dragged across the street in the process of disabling a drunk driver (who for perhaps the first time missed the turn going UP the hill), and now again this past weekend it ended up halfway down the block in another dramatic wipeout.

I heard the crash but didn’t bother to investigate because it was 4am, but the neighbors told us the person got out of their vehicle and ran, only to return because where were they going? They had hit that rock (freshly restored to its place using the truck and straps and crowbars) veered up into the planted area between our fence and the sidewalk up onto the rock wall, flipped, and landed in the street. You can see very clearly by the path of destruction through our mature plantings what happened. There were chunks of metal parts that could only have been pieces of their engine or drive train scattered among the standard auto body parts. I am grateful that they were ok, but nobody ever sticks around to help clean up or fix these messes, nobody comes back to apologize, even the cops seem not to think that the destruction might be having an impact on us. First World Problems.

In this case the water meter box had to be replaced and the meter itself fixed. We had to load up the truck with all of the dead foliage for clean green at the dump and bid farewell to bushes that had been growing for 15 years. The cedar tree Morgan started from a seedling might make it, but it was torn out by the rootball and looks a bit rough.

We find this irritating, but thankfully so far it has not been tragic. I am trying to think of it like we live in a tornado zone and we sometimes have to clean up, accept some damage, and move on. I think I will contact the department of transportation this time, and start whatever process needs to be started to try to slow folks down before someone gets seriously hurt.

In the meantime, Morgan got to use the new leaf blower he got for Christmas and the chainsaw he got for his birthday, so that was fun, and I guess we have some space for new plantings we can play with.