The Sounds of the City

[rsc]

When we were in New York City last week for you-know-what, we stayed in a furnished apartment on West 58th St. between 6th and 7th Avenues. Shortly after returning there on Wednesday night (not a Ring night, so it was only a little after 11:00), while starting to watch the episode of "The West Wing" that we had taped while we were out, we became unpleasantly aware of a jackhammer in the street outside. (We were on the 10th floor, but it's really quite amazing how sound travels up from a street surrounded by tall buildings.) A Con Edison truck was visible from the window. This continued, alternating with other machinery, until shortly after midnight, and then resumed at about 6:30 the next morning. We eventually discovered that there was some problem with a steam line on 58th, right outside the front door of our building. The jackhammer was at it again (or still) when we came home from Siegfried just before midnight on Thursday, and didn't shut down for the night until about 1:00 (just as we were going to bed, fortunately). They did various things there for the next couple of days, and were filling in the hole when we left late Sunday morning. Oh, well, I guess that's we get for staying in midtown Manhattan.

So, this morning, back in Cambridge, what do we wake up to at 7:30 this morning? That's right, the sound of a jackhammer. Something to do with the parking lot for the newly-renovated-but-never-quite-finished City Hall Annex directly behind the house.

Comments

Re: Checked on it

[rsc.livejournal.com]

There is no way of knowing when a street project will be finished. This not being NYC, however, I think we can reasonably assume that there will be no jackhammer or other road work going on at midnight or over the weekend.

For some reason I had the idea that you cared about the availability of the parking lot, although on reflection I can't imagine why you would.