I'm easily confused!

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Now toad patrol is back in full swing and we have dug out all the buckets, hi-viz jackets, recording sheets etc. from last year. We also have two movable road signs, which we put out every evening, one at each end of the mile or so stretch of road that we cover. On Sunday Lottie, our coordinator, reported that one of the signs had come out of its frame and she couldn’t fit it back in. I said I would bring some tools to sort it out, and come early so I could do it before dark. So yesterday I collected up a few hand tools and got to the crossing first. I parked in the layby which is about mid-way along the stretch of road, and walked down to the bottom where we store our bits and pieces behind a wall. I got the sign out and looked at it; it seemed fine, so I thought it must be the other one that needed attention. I set up the sign, took a stack of buckets and headed back the other way. It started raining heavily so I stopped at my car to put on my waterproof trousers, then walked up to the top of the section to check the other sign – but that seemed fine as well. I couldn’t work out what Lottie thought was wrong! When I got back down to the layby again, Lottie had arrived. I told her I couldn’t find anything wrong and she said she had swapped the signs. I still didn’t understand – swapped them with what? It turned out she had taken the detached sign away with her on Sunday, thinking that a guy at her workplace could fix it for her. But he wasn’t there yesterday and she still had it in the back of her car. And for some reason she decided it would be better to have the loose sign at the bottom of the stretch of road and the other at the top. So basically I checked one sign and it was fine, then Lottie had arrived, deposited the loose sign at the bottom, picked up the other one, driven past without saying anything while I had my head in my car in the rain, and dropped the sign at the top so then I walked up there and checked that sign - and it was the same one! It all got clarified in the end, and I clipped the loose one back in so now everything is fine again All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.