Jul 3, 2008
Who Needs Water, Anyway?
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?” “Huhhhhhhhhhh?”
The above is a recent sample of dialogue between Bossy and her auditory cortex as she struggles to hear the sound of her own thoughts. For the last week—and a month before that—a work crew has been situated directly in front of Bossy’s house in order to replace all of the water lines on Bossy’s street, and in her neighborhood, and in the universe.
Lucky thing it’s not summer when Bossy insists on keeping the air conditioning off and her windows flung open. Oh, wait.
As her readers reader can imagine, Bossy has been following the street crew’s progress and offers the following summation of their imagined Work Order:
Dig up every pipe in existence and cover them with stones and then dig them up again and cover them with stones and then dig them up again
ad infinitum etc.
This begins at seven in the morning with jackhammers and continues throughout the day with backhoes and moves into the afternoon with concrete saws and shifts into early evening with bulldozers. With something that sounds like the occasional gun shot.
This leaves the street crew very little time for napping on Bossy’s front lawn.
And speaking of the street crew, they are a terrific bunch of guys who are more than a little nervous about Bossy’s very intimidating guard dog.
In exchange for all the grief the street crew must endure in the way of complaints and heat stroke, Bossy’s daughter offers them entertainment in the form of show tunes wafting from her bedroom dormer window.
If you listen carefully, you may be able to hear her belt the opening refrain from Oklahoma.
P.S. There is a new Family Tree post, which you will find in the left-hand column under that very famous Guess and Press.
I’m the first post, what do I win!!!
Why do things like this always go on during the SUMMER when we could, otherwise, maybe sleep in a little bit? Can you flush your toilets? Inquiring minds want to know!
…and I’m the only post 5 minutes later. Oh-oh, has something gone afoul?
I feel for you. I had a neighbor jackhammer his old patio. In the morning. For many mornings.
Ahhh… more real excitement and drama than most TV shows!! (which isn’t saying much, these days).
Yay! Construction! Joy of joys!
With me, it’s at work. They are drilling concrete. It’s the kind of noise that makes your teeth hurt. Upside. . no one is sleeping on my lawn.
…okay now that I’ve read the post, I’ll go away now. Happy 4th to Bossy.
Oh Bossy, you can take refuge in my quiet and peaceful ‘hood. Oh, no, never mind. I think your state and my state have been conspiring to kill summer-peace-of-mind.
My sister Ellie has an amazing success story about silencing the crazy-making machinery in her life:
http://meandyouandellie.blogspot.com/2008/06/weekend-3-way_27.html
Good luck withstanding the destruction of your universe!
I am sure that the WC is ahead of schedule. They always are. BD should break it up with some Hannah Montana – Best of Both Worlds and Life’s what you make it.
Of course Stella stays behind the bedroom door. She can’t open it if there’s no doorknob.
Uhm…don’t look now, but bossy’s house is glowing! It’s got that Amityville thing going on. Maybe that’s why Stella’s hiding.
Happy 4th!
Jacquie’s right: we WERE successful. Just CALL THE GUY IN CHARGE. And tell him to MAKE IT STOP. It worked for us…..
Bet you wish you were still on your roadtrip.
Love that they nap on your lawn!
Poor Bossy!
As we all know roadwork takes ALL summer, too~
The two months, a few years ago, that it took to redo my street WAS THE LONGEST SUMMER OF MY LIFE. More than once, X and I packed it up and sat at the coffeehouse/lake/river/insane asylum until the workmen went home and the street was again quiet.
The gardeners find it necessary to sleep out front of my place too. It’s quite annoying. Like, sleep in your car you fooking moron!
lol
poor stella…
It is seriously hard to maintain your mellow with jackhammers around.
You should turn your speakers to face outside and make it All Enya, All The Time.
Our windows are all shut tight by 9 a.m. this time of year, which is good, because the hay trucks and harrowbeds make a lotta damn noise when they drop hay in front of my house.
The Cacophony Gods get us all, one way or another, in the end.
Wait. I’m confused.
Is your house GREEN or PURPLE?
I know how you feel. There’s a new school being built 2 doors up from us and practically in our back yard (there are no houses behind us). They’ve been working for about a month now, and will continue working for practically the next year.
Totally sucks!
Thanks Bossy!
Also – we’ve had the same construction going on near us, just not the street we live on, BUT the street I like to take when we walk to the library – how dare they tear it up?!
We had some craziness of this sort last year. Well, it started last May and was supposed to be done by late July, but the work continued until November. They completely ripped up our back yard to do some work on the drainage and the creek behind our house. The creek used to flood all the way up the hill behind our house. Now with the marvelous work they’ve done, it only floods HALF-WAY up the hill. Thank GOD they completely disrupted our lives. I’m also pretty sure some of the workers got a sneaky peak of me breastfeeding my then-newborn son. Aaaah, that was definitely a summer to remember!
Its my least favorite season in Virginia…Paving Season. I feel your pain, Bossy, only my wrath is directed at the guy holding the STOP sign in front of all the cars in front of me…*aaarrrrrgggghhhhh*
Anyways, maybe you should break out the water hose, bikini top, and white t-shirt and give them a show…talk about a self-esteem builder…lol.
Augh!!! How can you have a John McCain ad on your blog?!!! I’m sickened!
The last photo looks like some infrared special ghost seeking pic that you see on a psychic show. Maybe that’s why Stella won’t come out. Poor baby.
I know what you mean! It is impossible for me to sleep sometimes.
If I were wealthy I would build a subdivision (or town) (or block) where people who are nightowls like me would not be awakened by jackhammering, lawnmowing, weedeating, leafblowing, hammering, car mechanicing, tire changing, tablesawing, chainsawing, screaming, shooting, constructing, or any other loud -ings before at least 11 a.m.
Or at least have soundproofed walls.
This same thing happened to me but they came into my backyard and made it so my toilets wouldn’t flush..and they cut my cable line (Intenet line). It was baaad!
At least those guys aren’t peeing on your Obama sign!
Oh-ho, I got you beat Bossy, here in the land of ticky-tacky houses that spring up over night on the High Desert. High Deserts sit on sheets of lava rock, so in order to do construction excavation of any sort – houses, water lines, roads – they usually have to BLAST out the area with DYNAMITE. (Perhaps that’s the gunshots you think you hear?)
So besides the noise and dust, every few months I have to drag out the spackle and fill the cracks in my living room.
Someone needs to tell Ron that it is a COMMENT and not a POST, cause if he was posting here he would be BOSSY and not some idiot that screams first when he gets here before the other stalkers.
Sheesh. Now what was I saying. Cause it was important dammit!
I dunno…
What is up with the construction?! That is just plain wrong.
Thank fook Farty lives in the quietest capital city in Scotchland, where nobody ever rips up the road right outside his work every fooking day for a decade. No, wait…
At least they haven’t accidently turned off your water at an inopportune time…..
I think it’s time for Bossy to take another road trip!
urgh. get ‘em stella.
BLECH!
Your daughter is reliving my childhood! I played showtunes on the record player in my room!
On the brighter side, be glad you have the jackhammers and the what’s-its to blame on the lack of hearing.
All I got’s middle age complete with a severely damaged auditory cortex…
Yeah, but . . . guys with jackhammers? Hawt.
Poor Stella. Has Bossy thought of extra-large noise-cancelling headphones?
I actually like it when they’re tearing up the street in front of the Manor. That’s when traffic finally drops out of warp and slows down to the speed limit.
But the noise, yeah, that can suck.
My boys would be in HEAVEN. Can I send them over with lawn chairs and sippy cups? And they can ride Stella!
Actually, you’re lucky that you have all this happening in the beginning of summer… My city is quite small and quite old and within the last 2-3 years all the water pipes under main streets are being changed… Last year workers came in august, removed the covering of one of the main roads, removed pipes, switched off the hot water and disappeared for months… they came back only together with winter and started working under the first snow falling – people were sitting at home with NO hot water half of the winter:(
this year they have removed the covering from the second main road, have already extracted pipes… am trying to guess if they are going to disappear again…
I’ve had jackhammering next door to me for about 2 months and I want to jump out the window.
The whole digging up pipes and covering with stones– should be assume they’re getting paid hourly?
I can’t believe it Bossy!! This is exactly what is going on in my neck of the woods!! I can’t stand the noise. What is going on???
This happened a few years ago on our block and it brought out all the little mousies. My cat was never as fat again…
Katy
http://mynutvillage.com/
Why would it not surprise me that BOSSY is on a first name basis with everyone on the work crew, that she has made iced tea for them on various occasions, and that they have invited her to go bowling with them next weekend?
My goodness! Your work crew made it all the way to my house, with their digging up water lines and covering them with rocks etc., where they have been doing exactly that since the week my daughter was born almost TWO MONTHS AGO. Fortunately, she can sleep through the jackhammers at six a.m.
However, my husband and I cannot.
I just don’t get construction work.
As her readers reader can imagine….
There’s more than one….you just can’t hear us.
Feel for ya. They were doing that on my work street for ~2 1/2 years. Between the trucks, the tampers, and the gigantic jackhammer , the were shaking us up , blasting our eardrums, breaking (greenhouse)windows, and covering everything in dust. Bleahhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Um…thats terrible. I would hate to wake up at 7am. with the sound of jackhammers.
yikes.
And I thought leaf blowers starting up …just when I’m about to lie down was bad. Worse you.
That could have been my bedroom window. Except I had stickers on the window and belted out “Annie.”
As for the water guys, send them over here when they’re done. My building was just on fire. Yes really. It’s 12:51 am and I’m still up. I won’t be sleeping for a while!
Horrors, for sure. I sincerely miss running water in my very own private space. Six more months, and I should be good to go. Let’s just pray insanity does not seep in first.
)
This happened to me once. I have no advice but much, much sympathy. And some spare foam earplugs if you fancy!
Someone should report those city workers. They haven’t budged in two friggin days.
holy moly! my dog’s name is stella, too!!!
Oh my God is the coolest place to hang…
I meant THIS is the coolest place to hang (still can’t type!)
Bossy might want to know that when you type her name in google and click ‘i feeling lucky’ Bossy doesn’t coem up, it Wikepedia and unfortunatly Bossys not on it!
Sorry