For the past ten weeks -- or even longer -- they (whoever they are) have been waking me up each morning drilling and digging on the street outside my house. Just when I want to roll over for another 5 minute snooze, the gouging, whirring, screeching, crunching, dragging sound of heavy machinery starts up propelling me to unGodly words and unladylike oaths and forcing me out from under the cozy covers and flannel sheets that cuddle us each night. Apparently, there's some gas pipes being replaced that is causing all the fuss. But it's been a noisy, long drawn process and it's still not over. The street has many large holes in it, covered with one inch thick sheets of metal bolted down and those orange traffic cones scattered about and one of those hideous blue portable toilets smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk for the workmen. All the earth digging has kicked up lots of dust so our cars are covered in dried up clay in addition to the autumn leaves that find their way into every crack of the car. I don't know where I'm going with the blog but it's your basic whine about a public works project and its noise and inconvenience. Don't get me started on the parking places lost to trucks and piles of earth and so-called tree protector fences that aren't protecting anything. Usually, our street in the fall is pretty with orange and yellow maple leaves and the last of the roses and marigolds. This year, it's been mud and dust and drilling and digging noises for weeks and no end in sight.
I haven't photographed all the sites associated with the Big Dig to manage water in Bloomingdale but I was captivated recently by the huge pipes I saw being laid under the road at 2nd and W streets. I couldn't help but think they are so big you could sleep in them quite comfortably! Or play some kind of crazy hide and seek game! And the machinery and men working on the job look so determined to solve the water woes we've had for a while. I know I've experienced some of the aggravation caused by the digging as the bus I take all the time -- the G2 -- has been rerouted or detoured for TWO YEARS, stopping no longer at the two bus stops I have used for over ten years. Instead, I now have to walk seven blocks almost to Anna Cooper Circle instead of the terminus stop in front of the Water Works on Bryant Street. And, I hope, when the pipe digging job is done, the bus will return to its old route. But I suppose this type of thing is one of the prices we will have to pay for fixing the water run-off sewage problem that's captivated the neighborhood for the last two years. And I certainly don't want to experience the basement seepage problems I've had to fix and pay to repair to make my basement usable again. Just writing about it makes me think of the smell of mold! After two or was it three episodes of soaked carpeting, I just had the whole thing ripped out and put down tiles after having the concrete repaired. Even though it was very good carpeting and made the space very warm and livable, I actually prefer the tiling now. And I've nothing against the rain as it really makes the flowers bloom in my garden. I just wonder when the rains will come again!NOTE: be sure to read the Anonymous commenter below who says this "dig" ISN'T the run-off sewer water fix, but a water main replacement instead. Hmm....
