The Case of the Disappearing Streets

What summer is synonymous with? Sunny days and balmy nights? Picnics? Baseball? Ha! Not around these parts, my friends. Folks 'round here like to joke that there are only two seasons: winter and road construction. At the moment that sounds about right.

The streets surrounding my house have disappeared.

and to the right

to the left

It has something to do with the gas lines or water pipes needing to be fixed. At one point we lived next to a giant trench. No pictures of that stage though. Too many burly construction men meandering about. I was afraid to  photograph them. No men operating large machinery on a Saturday though. Also, it was raining. Which brings me to my next point...

After a winter that lingered on into May, we have finally reached the stage that, at any other time, I would be enjoying. The rain. Days and days of rain. I love the rain. The way it sounds, the way it smells. Who doesn't love it? Dull people, that's who. But this year the rain is not as welcome as it normally would be. Days of endless rain delays the work that needs to be done. The project is already estimated to take five months to finish. Delays of any sort are most unwelcome.

But the days when construction can continue are not pleasant either. More than once I've woken up to the house rattling around me. More than once I've received a headache listening to the agonizing harmonies of excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks working in tandem. More than once I've fallen asleep to the same sounds because the men keep working after dark.

a photo taken a few weeks ago when the tree out front was full of pretty pink blossoms

I know I shouldn't complain. It needs to be done, whatever it is they're doing. The road was in terrible shape before anyway. But the inconvenience and noise is unavoidably irritating. Also it doesn't help that every other major road around the county is being worked on too (I'm exaggerating, but only slightly).

But the good news is I'm leaving tomorrow for a week-long trip with my mum.

The bad news is we're leaving to go pack up my grandmother's things because she had to be moved to a nursing home after suffering a stroke four months ago.

Life, it seems, never gets easier.