Christmas in April

Ok, I know it's only March. But the title works better with April.

This morning I awoke to the sound of a truck idling outside. Oh good. It's 6:30 AM Monday and the contractors are back at work next door. The hammers start flying at 7, but today we had a nice early arrival of some sort of large truck. Excellent.

I understand the need to get to work early, and I have to admit I am impressed with the work ethic of the crew. There is not a moment wasted, those guys are hard at work form 7:00AM to 5:00PM. But this is week number eight - of about 24 -  and it is getting tiresome, to say the least.

Things are going as well as can be expected with such proximity and bother. There was the incident I wrote about before when the bracing was in my yard blocking Maggie's wheelchair access. The boys hopped to and fixed it straight away. Last week someone tipped over the portable toilet and I called the owner of the house to let him know. In fairness, that was probaby some high school kids  Then the other morning,  I got Maggie downstairs, and opened the garage door just in time to see the bus pull away. Seems the big boss told the bus to move so he could hitch up his trailer full of crap and take it away. That required him to block my driveway for several minutes delaying the bus access for several minutes while he worked on the trailer. That was REALLY not cool.

I didn't say anything at the time because I was so mad I was fuming. I know that it is best that I keep my mouth shut when I'm that angry because there is just no telling what will come out. Steve made the mistake of making light of it when I came back into the house and I nearly tore his head off. (It's a dangerous job being married to me.) I said/screeched, THEY DO NOT GET TO MESS WITH MAGGIE. (and I may have used a different word than "mess".) Steve quickly understood that I was NOT pleased. The next day I mentioned to the foreman that was unacceptable and that I instructed the bus driver to ignore them from now on. He got it right away. I think he was very sad to see that garage door open before he finished and knew he was caught red handed. I told him they can do their job, but they cannot interfere with my life - except for constant noise for six months. Even a day later, my tone was clipped.

I believe we have an understanding now.

It is difficult because this is a row house. They have a lot that is 25 feet wide and it abuts my lot that is 25 feet wide. To give you an example, this is what I saw while I ate breakfast the other day. It is a workman redoing the window in my neighbors dining room, and it is taken from my dining room table.

Today has been particularly loud and shaky. A picture frame on my bookshelf fell over a couple of times. Finally I just laid it down and will put it back up when they move away from that corner of the house.

I am glad Maggie is at school all day - but next week is Spring Break so I'm not sure what we will do then. Lots of outings, I guess.

Oh and just to complete this Monday morning I have to share another ridiculous fashion choice by the nurse.  First of all, the nurse I have on Sunday night does everything in the morning, which is very helpful. Maggie is in her chair with all the equipment attached which saves me at least 15 minutes in the morning. It's good thing though, because I often have to change Maggie's clothes when this particular nurse is here. There have been some very odd outfit combinations.

This morning Maggie looked fine, though I was a bit perplexed at the 4th of July shirt. Didn't matter, Maggie is a proud American and she can show it all year long. I left it. It wasn't until I was getting ready to head downstairs that I noticed the socks.

Sure,  St. Patrick's day is over, so lets' get out the fuzzy Christmas socks with the snowflakes.

We changed those while we waited for the bus to arrive.  The workmen watched and wondered, but they seemed to be staying on their side of the hedge.

They don't want to cross me again so soon.

Get OFF My Lawn

There's nothing quite like scaring the crap out of two grown men first thing in the morning.

They are doing a massive remodel to the house next door to us. Work started a month ago and  will continue for another five months. The neighbors had to move out and the house is completely gutted at this point. The demolition was particularly noisy and as I write this, there is some heavy equipment running. They are pouring concrete and a tractor type thing doing God knows what. But, like anything else, you get used to the noise and it fades into the background. The contractors are nice guys. There are a slew of workers over there and the two boss types are both Irishmen. It's always a pleasure to listen to that accent and they are very friendly and accommodating to us.

I've mentioned before that I live in a row house. There is zero space between the properties. Before the work started I told the neighbors and the contractors that we would be fine with whatever they had to do, but they had to be mindful of wheelchair access. Our elevator is in the backyard and we take Maggie out through the garage.  That area abuts part of the remodel. A week or so ago they took part of the fence down between the properties. They told me they might be in our yard, and I said that's fine, but remember the wheelchair issue, and they assured me they would. They did what they had to do and there was no problem.

Yesterday they poured the concrete for the new foundation. I traded pleasantries with the foreman as the truck got into place. I walked to the store, came back, waved at the guy again and went inside.  They never mentioned that they were using part of my yard to brace the foundation. If they had asked  I would have said yes, of course, but once again I would have reminded them about the wheelchair access. Steve was moving something at 11:00 PM last night (don't ask) and couldn't get through because the forms were blocking the path.  

They arrived at 7:00AM. I called over there from the back deck, but they didn't hear me. I went out in front and the two boss types were standing in the driveway. The looked up and smiled. I just said, "Hey, I am happy to cooperate with you, but you have to move those forms so I can get the wheelchair out to the bus in the next 15 minutes. And If you are doing something in my yard ASK ME or at least tell me. I am going to say yes, but I do NOT like surprises."

Jaysus! They hopped to! That stuff was gone in a flash.

I took Maggie out to the bus with no problem and the big boss was falling all over himself apologizing. I said "it's ok, but you have to understand we have emergencies all the time and I cannot have something in the way that I don't know about. Even yesterday I had to leave early because of a problem with her feeding tube. And that doesn't really qualify as an emergency around here."

 He looked sheepish and genuinely contrite. I don't expect there will be any more issues like that. Or at least no surprises. I put the fear of God into them. Or at least the fear of the crazy lady next door. It was only a matter of time until they discovered the real me.  Steve just said, "ah, the poor lads" in his best Irish brogue.

Poor lads, indeed.

It's nice to know I still have it.