They came, they dug big holes, they left

The sewer work in my Van Nuys neighborhood made its way to our street yesterday. Giant holes were dug with enormous backhoes (the 2-year-old loved it -- "big trucks!" ) ostensibly to install pipes that were broken during the Northridge Earthquake. Oh well, what's 11 years of leaky sewers between friends?

I really am excited that they're doing in at all. And hopefully our street, which resembles a rock-strewn dirt road more than anything, will be repaved as a result.

Generic backhoe photo, but it looked surprisingly like this, right down to the clouds.

I had to drive around a guy who was in a hole up to his neck at 6:30 p.m., and the crew worked overtime, until about 7 o'clock, refilling the holes (they broke a water pipe sometime during the day), and this morning at 7:30 a.m. or so there was a giant water truck with a guy hosing down the mud. On a street that doesnt drain at all due to being in almost total disrepair, it just made muddy puddles. Whatever. It just means we're that much closer to new pavement and hopefully some Starbucks-busting speed humps. Now if they put in real curbs, that would be special. Ours is one of those streets that just slopes up to the lawns -- no curbs and no sidewalks, the latter for which I'd gladly give up some lawn to the city because I LOVE sidewalks. Great for kids, dogs and regular people, too. It would give the coffee-seekers something to walk on while they made their way toward Starbucks.