Dancing with my devil: winter construction

Just noticing how my perspective of the construction project happening mere inches from my stairs–with all its noise and inconvenience and harsh reality-adjustment–is shifting since I decided to practice yoga with it…

Last week’s noise and vibrations were brutal, riveting my adobe house with nausea-inducing vibrations from 8:30 til 5 p.m.  The experience was terrifying to my cats who could not escape it, who were so stressed by it that they both developed diarrhea.  I felt agitated, on edge, extremely irritable and ended each day with aspirin for the pounding headache–despite leaving for hours at a time to either nap in my car or hang out in the library.  Funny how reading is out of the question–even for an avid reader–after such an exposure to extreme noise.  Prior to this event, I had not suffered a headache in maybe fifteen years?

Despite the discomfort, something magical happened as I watched from my dining table–backhoes digging, a man standing in the excavated hole to guide them–I began to “get involved” with his project.  I couldn’t help but notice how skillfully the backhoe worker shaved that edge until it was “just so,” or how he somehow swung it around to the dump truck without breaking my window or knocking a hole in my adobe house.  They were that close.  I felt both respect and awe for his skill and for the other man’s courage in standing so near that mechanical maw.

Finally, on Thursday mid-day, it seemed like the excavation might be completed because both backhoes, the pounder-devil, and even the stinky-diesel dump truck left the premises.  Workers then hammered and hammered, beginning the frame for the foundation.  By Friday afternoon they covered the ground  with tarps.

Sure enough, over the weekend we got eight inches of snow.  By Monday morning it was clear that one cat was too sick to stay home.  She got to spend overnight at the vet and I got to shovel snow for an hour this morning to go pick her up.  An hour later, the crew showed up to shovel the excavated foundation hole.  Workers resumed framing for the concrete foundation pour; heavy pounding, driving rebar with mallets through frozen ground, evokes yet another headache.

Will I leave again today? Probably. Would I have left for the duration if I had known before he started what the time frame was? Probably–even with two cats who have not traveled yet.  But those are irrelevant questions. Fact is: I’m here, now. And construction is happening here, now. I can either get involved and do yoga with it (notice without judgment what I am experiencing) or I can be miserable.  Hmm.  Hang on, I could also spend time on the River Trail!

Till next time, I’ll be Skating Thru my day, grabbing those precious noise-free hours to snap photos and jot sentences…then leaving for the river trail.  How about you? Are you dancing with your devil, too? Who’s leading?  ~Pam

[This is the second is what appears to be a series on "living with winter construction."  Interested? Please see : "Practicing yoga with construction noise."  Next post re' "What I saw out my window!"]