Monday, April 26, 2010

Mean Streets

What does one say when finding this notice on the front door of her humble abode?







The correct answer is: Now???



Now that we’re supposed to get four solid days of rain, after a completely dry 2 ½ weeks?

Now that I’m supposed to be hosting my book club here tomorrow afternoon, meaning eight women will be parking their cars (where ours are) up on the cross street, and hoofing it down the hill to our house?

Now that this means you’ll barely have the street open for us to bring the car we’re not taking to Pittsburgh back to the garage while we’re gone? (Yeah, that’s going in my archives as the worst sentence I’ve ever written…. I think I’ll keep it.) I’m sure our neighbors up on the cross street would not appreciate having our car there an extra week!

Yes. Now.

Btw, another of the 'bookees' agreed to host (thanks, Linda!) and we averted that crisis! (I insisted on taking the dessert, since I was already psyched to make it-- will tell you about that-- and provide the recipe soon!)

So bright and early the next morning, in came the big equipment, shaking the street and rattling the windows. Soon the cutting began. The concrete saw did its thing, and loudly sliced the old slabs into sections. Then a mechanical ram (possibly hydraulic?) street-buster turned the sections into chunks o’ concrete. It was all kind of like a slice-and-dice operation, but on the street instead of an onion.

Meanwhile, the house was shaking like crazy, and I had to wonder what this will do in terms of settling, foundation cracks, door frames, and my weight loss. (I always have to wonder about that, even when it’s totally unrelated. You know, “Does this concrete mixer make my butt look big?” --stuff like that.)

When the shake, rattle and roll stopped, the pre-mix truck came down to pour all new slabs. And a crew of non-hottie guys did the smooth and finish stuff.

So because he’s as big a nerd as I am (though often about totally different things,) the Center of the Universe (CoTU) went outside and shot some videos of the festivities. And now, because he’s a bigger attention whore hound than I am, he wants me to post them here.

And to make the whining and whimpering stop, I’m doing it. Besides, I’m pretty sure that our 3-year old grandson will get to see the video this way! (No, he’s not a subscriber [yet] but his mom’s a frequent reader.) And he’s all about the streets and the signs. So this one’s for you, Zachary: check it out!


9 comments:

  1. Sounds like your town schedules things like the Army - in the most inconvenient way possible to the most people possible.

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  2. Hey, they take a wild approach to Wildwood!

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  3. Hey Leah! Good grief! I've never seen one of those stabbing machines before! And the house shakes while they do it?! WHAT?! SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU! Indigo

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  4. Wow, I can see how some people would love watching that. Listening, not so much.

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  5. Although I know you've already been awarded the "Honest Abe" Award...I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ply you with it...again.

    At the very least, it should reinforce the impression that you come across very "honest"! ;)

    Got to my post to view it:
    http://wemmicks-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-awards-go-tomommy-wemmick-huh.html

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  6. Although I know you've already been awarded what I've dubbed the "Honest Abe" award...I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to send it your way when it landed in my lap.

    If nothing else, it should reinforce the impression that you come across QUITE "honest"!
    And come by it, QUITE "honestly"! ;)

    Swing by my post to view it:
    http://wemmicks-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-awards-go-tomommy-wemmick-huh.html

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  7. Interesting. I've seen streets in much worse shape left to collapse of their own free wills. But I live in the City, where their solution to keeping the employees busy consists of replacing old parking meters, which required only 8am-7pm feeding, with new ones, which now require us to carry a roll of quarters and feed through 10pm.

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  8. Hi Leah,
    I loved your haiku that you wrote in my comments weeks ago, and I'm featuring it tomorrow with a link to your funny blog. :)

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  9. Zachary says: "I love it because it's good. I like the jackhammer punching holes in the street. I watched it a lot of times and I want to watch it again. I love you. Nothing else."

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