Before You Dig for Any Sign

RECENTLY WHILE PLACING a pylon sign, I surveyed the site to make sure all was good. Checked for overhead power lines, looked over the landscaping, made sure there was room for a crane truck and a backhoe, looked at setbacks required, took some photos and some selfies, and so on. All the surface stuff one needs to take into consideration while placing a sign that hopefully will be there for the next 200 years.

I called MISSDIG and they flagged it with yellow, orange, blue and brown pennants signalling all kinds of things underground I could not see. I took more photos and selfies, then placed the “Eric says here” flag where the install crew was to dig a hole. It was supposed to be an easy “in and out in six hours” pole installation if there were no issues. But one thing no one (except me) expected to find, appeared right smack in the middle of where the 24-in. augur was turning up dirt.

All be darned if the Earth did not put a boulder right exactly where I wanted to put this sign. Millions of years ago the creator of the planet and the stars said, “Eric is going to someday want to put a sign here. I think I will provide an obstacle for him to ponder and figure out what to do. It will be a good lesson for him in his search for enlightenment.”

How is it that the guys on the History Channel show The Curse of Oak Island dig for decades with a map and all kinds of fancy equipment and still only find a belt buckle with a few beat-up tools? Yet I can find a boulder three feet under the surface of the planet in some random place that I decided to put a sign?

Lucky for me, I did some homework before the job was even quoted. Upon my research on the interwebs I found out that glaciers a few years back moved rocks and dirt around and placed them in many regions of the area I was working. I told the client up front that we may run into things we cannot see. No, not crazy supernatural entities or aliens with underground bunkers. But other things like rocks and clay and mastodons (Ice Age elephants) left there by the planet.

By being upfront with the client and explaining the possibility of finding such crazy things, they understood that it may take a bit more money to complete the project. The contract stated that if we were to come across any “unseen” obstacles, we would have to charge time and materials to remove the obstruction. This would also require more concrete due to the now larger void.

Think of the whole situation as taking your dog for a walk. You have a baggie just in case Fido decides to leave a hot one on the sidewalk. You use the baggie to clean up the mess and keep walking. You were prepared for the possibility. However, Fido decides he was not done and then drops another present for you to deal with. Did you bring another baggie? In the case of finding this boulder underground, I had brought another baggie!

I snapped a few pictures of the beaming light from on high illuminating the obstacle the Universe put there for me to deal with, got the client on the phone and invoked the clause in my contract. The client was okay with the extra cost because they knew it was a possibility, and I had come prepared by having a clause in the contract for just such a situation.

And they all lived happily ever after.