Day 140: Cats and Construction Works

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 140: Cats and construction works

The underground parking project is coming along nicely and after a noisy week (the last update being https://underthetorontosun.blogspot.com/2018/08/day-136-halley-and-geese.html the weekend brought peace and quiet. The quiet continued on Monday on account of rain.

If I thought the noise of the jackhammer was loud, that was nothing compared to another tool that was used to smooth out the edges of the concrete. A sandblaster. That thing made one heck of a noise. So much so that we had to yell at each other to make ourselves heard.

To give you an update on the latest progress ... 

 

 

While so far Holly, Halley, and Greyson had shown a keen interest in the works, while the sandblaster was attacking our eardrums with decibels, none of the cats went anywhere near the balcony.

Curiosity eventually got the best of Halley and Greyson though. When Dieter and I took them outside we were surprised at the progress the men had made. 

 

 

While initially Greyson clearly communicated "Hold me, daddy, I'm scared," later on, once he knew he was safe, he took a keen interest in the men and what they were doing. 

And what about Charlotte and Gabriel you might wonder. Those two are not remotely interested in the construction works. While Charlotte is not exactly scared, she doesn't like loud noises (doesn't even like the vacuum cleaner) and as for Gabriel ... he sleeps through anything and everything. I'm not kidding, whether the men used a jackhammer or a sandblaster ... nothing kept Gabriel from catching his zzzzz's.
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As I mentioned earlier, today it's business as usual, minus the noise.

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Day 136: Halley and the Geese

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 136: Halley and the geese

I just dawned on me that it’s been a while since I’ve given you an update on the 2.5-million-dollar project. The last two pictures I posted were these:

 For about two weeks after these pictures were taken, I didn’t see anything happening. Not that the men weren’t working, they were – as I now realize – busy placing supports in the parking garage in preparation for the next phase of the project.

Last week Monday I came home and was greeted by this sight:

From then on, the pit just became bigger and bigger.

The noise of the jackhammer (white machine on the far left) is deafening. The works starts promptly at 9:00 a.m. and continues until 5:00 or even 6:00 p.m. I try not to let it bother me, but after a few hours this is getting more and more difficult. More so because watching something on TV is impossible as I can’t understand the dialogue. The same with listening to an eBook, I can’t concentrate on the narrator.

Even Halley has a hard time dealing with the noise. She was sitting on the ledge, watching the men at work, and her eyes were clearly asking … what are they doing? 

She was trying to attract the attention of one of the men with an “Hey you! Can you keep it down a bit? Some of us are trying to sleep up here.” 

When that didn’t work she decided to call on a higher power with a “Please God, make it stop!”

Last Friday the noise did stop for a little while as the foreman came to inspect the site and he and the six men took a stroll in and around the pit. While one of the workers did a lot of gesturing, the foreman stood with his hands on his hips bobbing his head. He seemed pleased with the progress.

Then on Saturday, a different kind of inspector and his entourage came to take a look at the works. I heard a strange noise, went to take a look and there they were ... five Canadian geese, casually taking a stroll along the construction site. 

Not one but five of those big birds were just waddling along, seemingly belonging to nobody. Now that was of interest to Halley. 

Day 127: 2.5 million dollar project (2)

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 127: 2.5 million dollar project (2)

There was a time when I woke up to the sound of silence, or birdsong, depending on the time of day. When I wake up at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. I hear nothing at all, but when waking up around 6:00 a.m. (which doesn’t happen very often) I get greeted by a cacophony of birds all competing with each other with tweets, chirps, and songs.

Nowadays I wake up to a different loudness. With the parking project in full swing, the construction workers create their own kind of noise. A jackhammer, a type of mini bulldozer and two other machines all fight with one another over who can create the biggest racket.

Then there are the men. Most of the time they go about their job in ‘silence’ but every now and then they need to communicate with each other which is not as easy as you might think. When Marcel is having fun with the jackhammer, Renee has to shout and whistle quite a few times to get his attention.

When they talk to each other, they don’t really talk as such, they shout. Understandable as one man is on one side of the parking lot and the other is on the other side. So, communication goes in the form of yells, screams, and hollers.

How the men manage to work in this heat is beyond me. Yesterday's temperature was 28 deg C (82.4 deg F) but they don’t seem to be bothered. Dressed in jeans, T-shirts and a helmet, they sit in the tiny cabins of their machinery and tirelessly scoop up the soil and deposited it in the container. Judging by the mountain of soil it’s going to take them days if not weeks to get through it.

Someone asked me the other day if I was a construction worker, which job I would prefer. Would I want to be a builder, a glazer, or did I have something else in mind? I didn’t have to think long. If I was to be in construction, I would want to be a crane man, okay to be correct a crane woman. I quite fancy the idea of sitting high and dry in my own little cabin, several meters above the ground. There’s a problem though … I have a fear of heights.

Anyway, back to ‘my’ construction workers. Around 12:00 the noise usually stops when the workers kill their machinery for lunchtime. They eat, they have a cup of coffee or tea, followed by a well-deserved rest. From the looks of it, the one on the left is contemplating life, the middle one is busy with some stretch exercises, while the one of the right is conked out. For his sake, let’s hope there are no birds in those trees.

I can’t wait to see what they get up to in week three.

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Day 124: 2.5 million dollar project (1)

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 124: 2.5 million dollar project (1)

In addition to my own 365 creative writing prompts project, I would like to keep you up to date on another project. A $2.5 million project.

The works involve replacing the membrane of the parking garage of our condo building. Four members of the board of directors were in favor of this project, one was against it, so this was a no-brainer … with 4 to 1 the majority won.

The quotes that were presented for this project ranged from $2.5 million to $4 million, or so we were told. I contacted a construction company on my own and received a quote for $1.3 million. Why the difference? Who knows, draw your own conclusion.

Anyway, the works started last week by ripping up the asphalt.

While Charlotte and Gabriel couldn’t give a flying leap about what’s going on outside, for Holly and Halley this is great entertainment. The works usually start at 8:00 a.m. at which time one or both of them sit on my bedroom windowsill. Once I’m up and about and the balcony door is open, they move to the ledge and keep an eye on the workers from there.

 (Halley clearly has her doubts)

I should mention that this particular project is set to finish in November. Then next year phase two will start, followed by phase three.

In the meantime, I would like to keep you up to date on the progress by means of a weekly report. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words, let the pictures do the talking …

 www.connymanero.weebly.com