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Before the Pole Was Removed
08.30.09 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Before the Pole Was RemovedWe went up to the property to say good riddance to the old pole by making monster faces and graffiti on it.
So long, pole. We will not miss you!
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Stranded at the Drive-In
08.29.09 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Stranded at the Drive-In…Branded a fool… What will the kids say? Monday at school?
Oh, Sandy…Â Someday, when high-eye-school is over…
We have been waiting all summer long for a kid appropriate feature to arrive at the Puget Park Drive-In. This past week, we decided to take the kids to see the double feature of ‘Shorts’ and ‘G.I. Joe’. Neither were too impressive (we left early on in G.I. Joe) but it was good fun to eat sandwiches and licorice, talk as loud as we wanted and wear pajamas in our own car at the movies!
Monkeys hanging out of the car before the movie.
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Our Summers Work Realized: Pole Removal
08.28.09 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Our Summers Work Realized: Pole RemovalOur lot changed on Wednesday. This is what it looked like until Tuesday:
On Wednesday morning at about 9:AM, we arrived on this scene:
That’s right, a bunch of trucks digging holes, cranes raising poles, and about seven crew members working on our lot. We even had our won set of flaggers! It was finally happening! We squealed with delight! The pole was getting moved off of our property and onto our neighbor’s! However, if it were only that easy. Of course, the story of the pole has played out like a bad soap opera: lies, betrayal, yelling matches and a whole lot of drama. Believe it or not, this day also had its own set of nailbiter events. Fortunately, the foreman knew Bradley from high school and was willing to make a few exceptions and some extra calls to make sure we were satisfied with the job.
When we arrived, the crew was already digging the hole for the new pole. Bradley recognized that the hole was about three feet over the property line on OUR property. We had the foreman stop the digging and restart. If we had been much later, the pole would have ended up in the middle of our main play yard.
Jude was fascinated with the trucks. He was especially engaged when one of the construction workers got into the bucket and went for a ride in the sky to drill holes in the pole and attach new wires. While up there, the crew realized that the wires from Verizon and Comcast were going to go all the way across our yard. The crew didn’t have rights to redirect the wires, so for the time being we have wires that will impede the building of our house. (Update: Bradley has made the calls and the situation is being tended to. For once, easement paperwork is not holding us up!)
Finally came the moment when the pole was pulled. They used a crane to wiggle the pole to loosen it from the soil, moving it back and forth, back and forth, until it came like a wiggly loose tooth.
Finally, we are free of the pole! But wait! One final snafu! PSE did not have the rights to disconnect or reconnect a telephone wire that was previously connected to the old pole… Fortunately, they pulled a favor for us and just did it. We are not going to complain. The task is done, the pole is gone.
This morning, the guys from Bayshore are arriving to start excavating, and Bradley and I are breathing a big sigh of releif. Our whole summer was focused on ridding the lot of this pole. It is finally gone, and our project’s destiny is at last in our hands! Onward and upward!
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Book Lover
Jude’s favorite book is currently the Star Wars pop-up book, which is just riveting for him as he watches the Rancor come lunging out of the pages and marvels at the Light up lightsabers of Luke and Vader with a “Vooom, Vooom” sound effect to re-create the sounds we make when we play with toys.
Jude’s other fave is “Yummy Yucky” which makes him giggle and chant the “MMMMMM!” and “Yechhh!” with religious fervor. I think he relates to it along the lines of the game Stinky Feet, which outstrips This Little Piggy, Bumblebee in the Barn, and even Iron Claw for best game EVER.
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Nature Boy
08.26.09 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Nature BoyOut on the lot checking out the Surveyor’s monuments. Tamara captured some nature shots of a wild beastie roaming the grasslands. It was a rare and pastoral moment for our resident Wild Thing.
Jude shows off his flower powers.
