4.19.2007

Earth shaking.

As in, the earth on which my house is built is literally shaking like crazy. The whiskey and wine bottles are rattling in the kitchen, the floor is trembling and my glass of water is making a visual reference to Jurassic Park. It's about on par with the two earthquakes I've experienced in my life. Enough motion to make one feel ill at ease, but not so much that one has to invest in a new set of dishes or break out the survival kit.

It's construction time on our block and half of the city's workers have taken over the streetscape. They are now working directly below me, cutting cement, digging up the road, putting down pipes, yelling and having raucous smoke breaks on the front step. As long as they don't break the balcony off the face of the house, I'll be happy. It's actually a bit of a tight squeeze for the earth mover to pass under it, so I'm just going to trust that our friendly work crew in neon orange vests is keeping an eye on the matter.

I'm also not complaining, mind. How could I when all this is within a fifteen minute radius of my (trembling) house?



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can do what a former neighbour of mine used to do: immediately after they started digging, he ran on the balcony and started yelling "Lunch-break!, Lunch-break!"... Sometimes it even worked :)

Lisa said...

:) That'd be pretty classic. I'll have to practice my dude voice. And then learn the proper grammar for that. Ok, now I'm thinking the plan has a flaw.

Then again, they seem to be pretty adept at taking breaks. Every so often all construction noise stops and I can hear birdsong. If I go out on the balcony and look to my right, they will all be sitting in the shade in a circle (like a grown men's summer camp), smoking and telling dirty jokes. That last bit is speculative, but I'm pretty sure accurate.

They're almost done with the construction, which is good, but it probably also means that we will get to enjoy the resurfacing part of the work this weekend. Once the machine with the hot tar gets here, I'm retiring to the bar until they finish. ;)

Lisa said...

On further reflection, kako se reče "break"? With my vocab all I can come up with is "lunch vacation" and I'm pretty sure that's not correct.

Jay said...

Everyone should be allotted a two week lunch vacation.

Anonymous said...

Odmor za kosilo! Odmor za kosilo! ...

Iva said...

Maaaaaaaalcaaaaaa, maaaaaalcaaaaaa!!!!

Lisa said...

@ Jay: I'm pretty sure that's part of the employment law in France. ;)

@Iva & Disablez: Perfect, I'll use them alternatingly! I laughed out loud at 'maaaalcaaaaa!!