street work

I saw this old 1954 cartoon by A.E. Beard recently, and I didn’t get it at first, then I realized – that’s one of my past neighbors. Every time it was time to paint the building, he would say, “Why do we need to paint the building? The only people who will see it are the people in the water.”

We live on the bay, so he meant the people out in their boats, boards and kayaks would see the building and we wouldn’t since we are looking out at them, not at the building.

I explained to him it was to protect the building, not to show it off, although I guess it should look nice by being painted ever few years.

I think we have the building painted every seven years. We had it done recently.

My neighbor passed away last year, so he had no say in the job being done. We are also changing all the pavers out in the parking area, which he has been opposed to since I have known him. For over 20 years he stopped that job. Now it will be done. Some areas are sinking. It needs to be done!

We have had a lot of work done around here recently – lots of workers around. The painters were here for a couple of months, they even washed my car for me a few times. Before that, we had structural work done, due to the 40 year recertification rule, a Florida thing – they were here before the painters for a couple of months.

And now, for many months, the streets are being “repaired.” They are putting new drainage pipes in the streets, raising the streets and raising the sidewalks. Our cul-de-sac has been taken over since November and it is supposed to go on until June!

There is all sorts of big construction equipment blocking our paths daily. It’s a chore going in and out. But the workers try to be accommodating.

One of my neighbors said I was in and out too much. He said, “Why don’t you try and stay home during the day, like I do.” I should have told him I have things to do and people to see, but I just ignored him.

A funny thing about the whole street job is that I was gone a few weeks in the summer, and one of my neighbors was gone for almost two months. We both thought we were beating the system, by being gone while all the work was being done. Unfortunately, they started the job months later.

I do have to say that the guys doing the construction work about the building, the painters and these guys working on the streets are and were all polite and friendly. Overly friendly.

Just the other day, a cement truck sat by for a half hour or so just waiting to get by, while a neighbor down the street had his car washing company block the road with his big trailer set-up. I honked and made the car washers move. The cement truck guys just sat and waited patiently.

Till next time . . .

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It’s almost like the pandemic here at home.

I don’t mean anyone is sick, what I mean is that we are sort of in quarantine here at the building.

For the past few months, our cul-de-sack has been getting new pipes buried in the street, which involved the streets being cut up and pipes being taken out and replaced. The workers are quite methodical. At first I thought the whole area would be dug up at once, and we would be navigating piles of dirt and big ditches in the streets, but they seem to work in sections of about 20 feet.

They dig up a 20 foot section and do their thing taking out the old stuff and putting in the new.

From a distance, it looks like a movie scene is being filmed on one corner. Everyone and every large piece of equipment is concentrated on one area – everyone in a large circle is looking at the same thing – the center of attention. Sort of like “lights, camera, action.”

When they leave at the end of the day, it looks as if they weren’t here. The street is all cleaned up, the huge ditches are covered up with some sort of metal covering, the areas are all hosed down and I guess until they lay the new street down at the very end, it looks nice, clean and tidy.

For the past weeks they were in one area, not far from me. Now these past few weeks, they have been in front of my building. I was hoping it would be when I was out of town a few times over the months, but it’s now. So for now, we stay home most of the time, but to be fair, we are able to get in and out and exit and enter the neighborhood through various ways.

But sometimes, it’s just easy to just stay home.

I waited a bit the other day to get out because large equipment was blocking my exit, but I made it out and back home. UPS, FedEx, the mail carrier and Amazon all make it through. Which reminds me, I still haven’t given the mail carrier her Christmas present, guess I’ll go down and look for her this week.

Unlike the pandemic, it’s noisy, where during the pandemic is was so quiet and the streets were empty. Out back on the bay, I would see people kayaking, boating, water boarding and things like that. There was a couple who would be in some sort of gray float or inner tube and daily they would flow out with the tide and then back in again, talking with each other the whole time, just taking life easy.

Being confined to the house reminds me of that period. Only now the bay is quiet, since people are at work and school. But the street out front is very busy with the construction crews doing their thing.

But again, they are methodical and neat and accommodating, but I do look forward to the day when they are done and gone.

I know- first world problems, and at least we aren’t dealing with the major snowstorms which are affecting millions of people in the country this week.

Till next time . . .