Friday, 09 May 2008

• Time for an update on the ongoing gas utility project

  Yes, they are still out there. Read Here.   Nimo had sent a letter at the beginning of January warning the residents on my peaceful, low traffic, Leave it to Beaver street that they would be tearing up the road for the next four weeks. Must have been a typo; who knew one could spell month as w-e-e-k? I was somewhat disturbed in January/February that they spent so much time doing and re-doing but really…they are still at it. Yup, gone back to the head of the street and started all over again. Mercy!

   

  I can only imagine that they in their wisdom truly believe that they are saving us, the consumer, fistfuls of money with all this renovation. But, tell me, who in ten years is ever going to remember that they ran their high pressure natural gas line straight down the lawn terrace?????? (The lawn terrace is that strip of grass, in our case 5 ft wide, situated between the side walk and the roadway.) Got a great honking tree in the way? No problem! Just pull up the sidewalk slabs and detour around the thing. Huh? What happens when the resident hacks down that tree, grinds down the stump, and leaves not even a dent to indicate the prior existence of said tree?  I’m convinced that this project was drawn up by a kindergartener with ADHD and a crayon.

   

  I was going to set up a sand box in the backyard garden but why bother? I’ve got a free SANDPIT on the front lawn.  And I can rest easy knowing that if the kids scatter all the sand out of that pit there is one just like it in front of every home for three blocks. Guaranteed they will return in August to replant the grass they displaced. Why August? Could the answer be that it’s the hottest driest time of year here and just about the worst month for growing grass? But I’m not worried. This way they can come back and do it again in October, right after it snows. It will be good to renew old acquaintances.

   

  They will at some time need to gain access to my basement too. After all, as Hard Hat Guy explained, Nimo needs to install a venting valve from my gas meter to the outside of the home. Great, always wanted another hole in the house. I did point out that their intended internal path passes directly under the main electrical service to the home. Let’s see…gas fumes…electric spark…BOOOM!!! Hard Hat Guy finally agrees the flex tubing can’t go that way. You think? The reason for this tete a tete in the basement was to point out, for the third time, that the sewer service exits the home twenty feet from their pretty blue markings on the roadway outside. I did not want to be the proud recipient of two sandpits; one for real, two for oopsies.

   

  Side bar: Same Hard Hat Guy made a similar visit to the neighbor next door. Later that night C & R begin hearing some plaintive meowing coming from somewhere in the house. They were pretty used to that. Only problem, their beloved Liddy Kitty had passed the previous October. Not willing to believe that the ghost of LK had returned they sought and found Max, a cat granted, just not their cat. Hard Hat Guy had let Max in thinking he was doing C & R a favor. Max was sent home.

   

   

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