October 12th, 2021

Pavement Rejuvenator eh?  Sounds  a little like Snake Oil to me.  Funny I should say oil.....

One thing I will say for sure about the  very pretty town where we live, it's very  well maintained.  It's always clean, there are lovely flowers everywhere, the parks are nicely cared for and clearly, as you can see by the photo above, the roads are looked after.  I appreciate all of those things. And actually I think it's really nice that the town bothers to go to such lengths to notify it's citizens when things are about to get ugly.

Tim and I returned from a noonwalk recently to this tag on our mailbox.  The town sent some poor souls out to walk all over the island, putting this paper on every single house in town.  Wow!  That's impressive.

What wasn't quite as impressive was the actual "Pavement Rejuvenator" itself.  Big Stinky.   

The inconvenience I expected.  We were, essentially, trapped here in the house for a few hours that day with all the big noisy trucks and workers doing their jobs.  An important job, no doubt, but for some reason, the area directly in front of our house seemed to be HQ that day.  That seemed to be where most of the trucks and workers were congregated.   Not a huge deal.  The windows were closed which cuts down on the noise and in all honesty, there wasn't really any place we needed to go that day anyway so being blocked in was really not a big deal.  And if we absolutely had to get out, I have no doubt that they would have maneuvered those big old machines this way or that to find a way to let us out. 

It wasn't even the oily icky ugly residue left behind that bothered me much. You see, to get to the absolute edge of the road, the product actually also went onto everyone's property. So there was a nice even  coat of "Pavement Rejuvenator"  not just on the road but also parts of the lawn, the mailbox, the driveway (and therefore the newspaper in the driveway).  And the bottoms of our shoes anytime we stepped into the driveway, the lawn or the road which also meant it came into the house. (grrrr)  

The biggest annoyance about it all was the smell.  It's a petroleum product and therefore it has that unmistakable and absolutely nauseating petroleum smell.  For days afterwards, that nasty ugly icky fragrance lingered in the air.  And sadly, it followed us back into the house. That oily scent kind of "clings".  Anytime I was outside I wanted to immediately come back in to change clothes, wash my hair and shower.   Get the newspaper and shower, water my potted garden and shower, get in the car to go to the grocery store come home and shower.  Well of course I didn't, I would be water logged by now if I did, but the desire was strong. 

In short, It Was Nasty.

According to the flyer we received, any material tracked into our driveways (or into the house?) will "weather off" in three weeks and leave no stain.  But the same literature does say that children and pets should be prevented from stepping in treated areas so as to avoid tracking it into the house. It should also list adults who are just trying to access their own mailboxes for heaven's sakes!   

This all happened last Friday and here it is Tuesday and the smell has diminished.  It's not gone, but it is better.  The road and the edge of the road and the edge of the driveway where the dang newspaper lands every single day, still looks oily.   Presumably 3 weeks from now it will look fine, as promised in the flyer.  We shall see.

I am going to presume that's it's a "short term pain for a long term gain" situation.  And I will try to stop complaining about the yuck on the bottom of my shoes anytime I need to walk across the dang street.  Who knows, maybe when it's all cured and the three weeks have gone by, maybe the road (and the driveway) will look absolutely Great!  Maybe the roads will look 20 years younger!

Hmmmm, maybe I need a little pavement rejuvenator.