destruction chronicles - i ? my city

Well, my loyal readers, it is with trepidation that I tell you that I may just be writing the final Destruction Chronicle for 2010. I make no promises, and to be honest, I thought the LAST post I wrote was the final one. At least, until I got my bottom in gear and emailed the city about the little problem that was left over from the paving of my driveway.Did I think twice when the city Aqueduct truck pulled up in front of our driveway on Thursday morning and two men climbed down into the manhole with wires? Nah. The only thing I was thinking was, "Why the hell do they do these things exactly when we're about to leave for work and now can't get out of the driveway!? You'd think if they were blocking two driveways that have cars in them for any period of time, especially on a weekday morning at the time people are generally leaving for work, they would KNOCK ON YOUR DOOR AND ASK YOU TO MOVE FIRST." So I was cranky as hell, didn't think it had anything to do with the construction and didn't whip out my camera to chronicle anything.Thursday night I left work an hour and a bit late and therefore when Shawn picked me up at the bus terminus it was after 7PM and dark (SO sad that it's dark at 7PM already!). We picked up bad-for-us-but-oh-so-good food on the way home and it was dark, so I didn't notice anything different with our driveway.Until we took the dogs out for a walk at 8:30 PM and I was about to tell Annie not to trip on the watermain valve... only...The valve was no longer sticking up 4-5 inches from the ground! It was flush with the pavement!And of course it was pitch black out and my iPhone can't take photos in the dark so I made a note to myself to take photos in the morning (which I did with my phone). I was SO happy. I kept reminding myself all week to email the city and ask about the valve, but as I was out for 5 days with that plague (still lingering, too, drat!) I just didn't have the energy. And to be honest, since I'd been emailing them since April to complain a) about why our driveway was dug up with no notice and b) the city killed our tree what can I do (that wasn't a complaint so much as a concern), I didn't feel comfortable emailing to ask if they could PLEASE fix this valve hazard.So, either they are blog stalking me like my eye surgery place, or they had planned to fix this all along. I WAS giving them a couple of weeks grace because towards the end of the construction things would happen between longer gaps, but I was at the end of my 2 weeks and I thought I should ask about it before the first snowfall (which can happen at any time now, if you don't think about how last night's temperature went from 14C to 23C overnight... wth?).My plan was to try and write about this on break at work, which is why I snapped the iPhone photos, but when we got home Friday, I noticed this:They had freshly paved the side of the driveway around the valve! (the photo above is from my camera and not my phone). I was so impressed.I feel like going to City Hall and hugging someone. ;)Even will all my raving over the summer about the construction, I would like to take this moment to point out the following:

• the construction crew that was around for the bulk of the project was always super friendly, polite, CLEAN and professional. I have been subject to other construction stuff around where I have lived and the crews would always leave their garbage all over the place and seemed to disrespect people's property. This one was so great that I actually miss seeing them every day and waving. Especially Young Cousin John, he had such a kind face and awesome tattoos. heh
• as long as this construction seemed to feel, it was done VERY fast and efficiently. I was actually surprised at how quickly things were getting done. I had no hope that this would be done by October and yet they have been off our street and on to others since early September.
• I truly appreciate my new patio stones on the walkway. Only they are very bright, as you can see in the photos and that's without flash!

So, although this felt long, we were honestly rarely completely inconvenienced (a handful of times we had to park on another street, big whoop) the streets and sidewalks look wonderful and I am sure our water is cleaner and the pipes have less change of bursting open and flooding the street in the winter.So, thank you My City, for a job well done and for thinking of the people whose lives would be affected. Maybe you do care about us after all. Although I have to say a few more English books in the library would also be splendid. Oh, and please do not increase our property taxes due to the fact we have a shiny new street and water pipes now. ;)