The saga of our small mountain of sand has reached its final chapter…I hope.

After a long day of travel from the shores of New Jersey to the heart of the Heartland, my little family pulled into our driveway only to be blocked from pulling our car into our own garage by the remnants of the giant pile of sand delivered oh so many weeks ago.  I don’t know if the lack of sleep just made me extra curmudgeon-y, but something in me snapped and I resolved to take care of the situation with all possible haste.

We’d been trying to rid ourselves of the sand for weeks now.  About a third of the sand ended up in the sandbox.  Two giant trashcans full are stored in the back of my garage.  Friends and neighbors removed probably another third.  We’d run out of places to reasonably store the last third, and people to take it off our hands.  The thought of running a “Free To Good Home:  You Haul It, You Have It” advertisement in the local paper and on Craigslist was bandied about, but I balked at having to take random phone calls from people interested in a bucket here or a wheelbarrow there.

Friends suggested calling landscapers, who might have a use for free sand, but the response there was underwhelming (no one called me back).  The city was more or less willing to take it, provided I get it over to the local demolition landfill.  I barely restrained myself from yelling “But that’s my problem in the first place!”.

My wife initially wanted us to spend a lovely weekend as a family, renting a pickup truck and transporting a few loads of sand  to said dump ourselves.  None of the car rental places had a truck I could rent for just one day.  UHaul didn’t have a pickup available anywhere near town.  This pretty much negated the savings of doing it ourselves.

Finally, just before I threw in the towel and traded in my little Honda for a rugged 4×4 capable of scaling the sandpile, I thought to call some of the local dumpster delivery businesses.  ”We can be there tomorrow morning with a dumpster and a bobcat,” I was told.  Paydirt.

And sure enough, this morning a small team of crack dumpster delivery men arrived with shovels and brooms and bobcats.  An hour and a half later, my driveway was cleared of its obstructions.

I’m so happy right now, I could just cry.