City Workers?

When I looked out of my front window this morning, I couldn’t help but notice what a beautiful day it was. Oh, and the two front end loaders, three trucks with trailers, a man trailer for planning, breaks and I guess alcohol and drug storage, and of course an assortment of city workers in varying degrees of not working. I was surprised because somehow they had appeared without making any noise. It is nice to know that they do at least one thing very well.

The guy in one of the front end loaders had to have been 350 pounds, and not all of it muscle. I looked but couldn’t see anything that resembled a man sized shoe horn or 50 gallon barrel of grease which would have been needed to wedge him into the cab. He seemed comfortable though, what with the rhythmic breathing, closed eyes and a hint of drool slowly making a pool underneath the backhoe. Maybe that is the leak.

Two or three hours later I went out to see what they had accomplished and wasn’t terribly surprised to see the equipment and men in pretty much the same state as they had been. Tax dollars well spent. I learned that there was a leak somewhere around the corner, but because of a faulty valve in front of my house they were unable to find it until the valve gets repaired. Due to cost cutting measures the workers that at one time did maintenance are no longer doing that job, which means that these problems come as a big surprise to everyone. Score one for the bean counters!

When work eventually commenced there was a whirlwind of activity. Back hoes were digging, dump trucks were loading, three or four guys and one token woman were leaning on shovels, brooms or whatever happened to be handy and the right height. The result is a big hole surrounded by plastic fencing, a large pile of dirt, flashing lights and the afore mentioned backhoe. The only time these guys were working quickly was quitting time.

The good news is that for whatever reason, the pipe in front of my house doesn’t service my house, so my neighbours on the other side of the road should start to smell badly really quickly. OK, most of them already stink, but now they do have an excuse. It should be interesting to see how far the work progresses tomorrow. Actually it will be interesting to see how many tomorrows pass before any work gets done.