It is going to be a LONG 4 months!

We’ve known for some time that they were going to be working on our street. It began loudly on Monday morning. We were awaken by someone using one of those big cement saws to slice a line at the end of our driveway.

They went up and down both sides of the street cutting lines on all the driveways. From the looks of things, they may be ripping up half of our front yard, too. That remains to be seen, but there are all kinds of those flags across the lawns of my neighbors and me.

The other day, I woke up after dreaming I was flying in a World War II fighter plane. Think about the sounds that are made by the machine guns ……. got it? That’s what I was dreaming I was hearing. Nope. It was just the sound of a HUGE jackhammer pounding holes into the concrete!

That, of course is just the beginning. Then you have the “claw” that comes by and rips up the concrete block by block.

They were taking the blocks and dumping them in piles all along the street, but it seems like they got rid of most of them as they have made their way down to our house.

The kids certainly have loved sitting out on the porch watching the “big trucks” go up and down the street.

This afternoon, one of the drivers saw the kids on the driveway and honked the rig’s horn for them. They got a kick out of it.

For me, it has been a challenge to sleep during the day. Even with earplugs, I can hear the ruckus. At times, I can feel the ground shake as they are working. It hasn’t been fun. Today, we could feel the ground shake as they dumped these big pipes outside the house.

I guess what I don’t understand is that they are literally going all the way down one side of the street and tearing it up. We have three blocks on our street. To me, it would make sense to do from the main road to the end of block one (both sides), then from the end of block one to the end of block two, etc… Doing it this way has been one big mess.

We got a letter in the mail saying that we’d be allowed to park on the side streets where it is usually illegal to do so. That sounds good in theory. I’d do it, if there were big piles of gravel and dirt all along those side streets. It just seems like they really didn’t think things through.

Since starting on Monday, they have hit the water lines a couple times. Our water was off and on and off again. We are boiling water just in case because they never said if it was ok to drink it yet. They’ve also hit a gas line and they shut the gas off for almost a day. Thankfully, they came in and relit the pilot light on the water heater and furnace for us.

I really feel bad for my one neighbor. They just sold their house and will be moving within a month or so. They want to have an estate sale. I wonder how they are going to get people to come when they can’t even access the street! And how are they getting moving trucks in and out of there? Moving out is bad enough for them, and moving in will be bad for the new neighbors. Urgh!!

This is supposed to go on through November! I sense a lot of sleepless days for my wife, my kids and me.

By the way, I hope the port-o-john doesn’t find its way to my front lawn…..