destruction chronicles - holy everything happening today!

(Almost subtitled - curb your enthusiasm.. hahahaha I am so clever. And no, I have never watched that show, nor will I because I think it sucks.)Ok, so yesterday Wednesday trenches were dug. And you know what happens when your road is being constructed? People park like idiots.This was from last night and only one of the shots that turned out. Over to the left was more idiotic free-for-all parking and they stayed like that all night. Can't get into your driveway? Just park where ever the heck you want! Rules don't apply when the street isn't paved. Welcome yokels and rednecks! Yeeeehaw!! *shoots off guns like Yosemite Sam* *BANG!* *BANG!*And then Thursday was a HOLY COW THERE ARE CONSTRUCTION PEOPLE AND MACHINES EVERYWHERE sort of day.First this truck went around and men hammered stakes into the ground and attached string to each one.Jinx kept an eye on the construction workers to make sure they were not goofing off or doing anything incorrectly. He'll make a great Project Manager one day.A dump truck dumped a ton of gravel onto the street in front of us. See that silver car? Well you'll notice it's in all the photos. Why? Because some idiot left for the day and didn't move his car like he was supposed to. The construction workers were wandering around trying to figure out which house belonged to what car (they had a paper that I  guess had addresses and license plate numbers listed) and yet no one could find this car's owner. He went to work and left his car right in the middle of where the men needed to work. Good job, dude!Whereas most of the houses got string in front of them, we got metal thingies. Likely due to the fact that we're on the curve of the road and it kept the angle correct. Little did I know a large vehicle was about to come waddling down the road using this as a guide! (click to enlarge. Shush, Maria. :P)This tractor went around and filled the trenches from Wednesday with gravel as another guy guided him and spray painted where the curb would change to mark the driveway entrances. See that silver car still on the road? Lovely.CEMENT TRUCK! Woo! I don't know why I find cement trucks both terrifying and exciting all at the same time. The man with the hose was wetting the gravel as he made sure the cement fell from the truck and went up the little conveyor thing into the other weird truck that was laying the cement. I got all excited that they were giving us sidewalks rather than just a lousy curb due to the width of the trench, but alas, no.It's getting closer! Yes, I spent over an hour sitting in my rocking chair by the window taking sneaky spy shots with my camera as this went on. It was more exciting than TV! So much happening and so oddly graceful the way the tractor gently spread gravel in the trench and the cement was poured out. It's fascinating.Almost in front of our house! I said to Shawn I wished I was a Retired Old Man because every single one that lives on our street was out there talking to the construction guys and surveying their work. I didn't have the guts to go out and watch in person from the end of my driveway! So I hid in my house and snuck the camera through the window. heh.And here is the terrifying yet intriguing machine that was doing SOMETHING with the cement! But what was it doing? I couldn't SEE!!Oh my gosh! It's MAKING THE CURB! Just like that! Cement goes in, it slowly moves by and ... voila! CURB!These guys went around after the machine smoothing things out, spraying it with water and some protective stuff and wiping it down with brushes. So cool.And here I have a curb! And see how it dips where the orange paint was sprayed? I think they dipped it too close to the entrance so I'll see if I am right or wrong once they pave.This is the mound of gravel we still had at the end of our driveway (on our side of the curb) by Thursday night. You had to jump over this, the trench, the curb and the trench on the other side of the curb to get off your property that evening. They smoothed it all out Friday so that we could park in our driveway again for the weekend. Nice of them.Jinx of course kept a very good eye on what was going on. He wasn't all that impressed that we had to park our car two streets away for the night. He thinks they should have smoothed that gravel out when they were done with the curb. I tried to explain that they had to wait for the cement to dry fully, but he wouldn't listen.And in the GOOD NEWS category, my dead tree is coming back to life! The photo above is from Thursday afternoon. As of today (Sunday) as I write this there are a ton of tiny little red leaves on my tree and I am so happy it's growing back. We've had some good rain since the 2 week heatwave, which is what I think really killed it in the end. Half of the tree's roots were gone and then we had 2 weeks at 111F with NO rain and I think the poor thing gave up. But I might have shade again by... October? I hope sooner. Let's hope these little leaves become bigger leaves and stay for a while.