So 'twas on a Monday morning that the gas-man came to call

[sovay]

Because I hardly ever pay attention to it as a holiday, I always forget that Patriots' Day is so geographically bizarre, by which I mean that since it is tied to the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Menotomy it would make much more sense if like Evacuation Day it were functionally a Boston-area holiday or even celebrated only within Massachusetts and Maine and instead for some reason which may just be nationalism states as far-flung from the original thirteen colonies as South Dakota and Florida have since gotten in on the act. Around this time of year in the late eighteenth century, the colonial observance would have been Fast Day, which as a ritual of atonement must explain the stapled packet of pages popped through our mail slot this afternoon to notify us that for the next ten to twenty-four weeks we can expect construction every day on our street starting indefinitely soon. At least now I know what the serpentine pile of plastic pipe at the top of the street has been doing, taking up three parking spots. I am neither morally nor scientifically against the installation of a new gas main, especially since the cast-iron pipe being replaced is delicately described in the city materials as "vintage." I just want to sleep ever again in my life.

Comments

[kore]

the stapled packet of pages popped through our mail slot this afternoon to notify us that for the next ten to twenty-four weeks we can expect construction every day on our street starting indefinitely soon

NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[sovay]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I ATEN'T THRILLED.

(How can it take six months to lay pipe on a street this short? We have maybe six, eight houses on each side. I understand it's not a one-shot process, especially if the company wants not to blow up any houses, but there's physically not that much space!)

[jesse_the_k]

Based on recent enjoyment of the Big Dig podcast

https://www.wgbh.org/podcasts/the-big-dig

Boston’s streets are an unholy Tetris of water, gas, electricity, transportation tunnels, ratty raceways, internet fiber and graft.

It’s entirely possible that the contractors have no information about the placement of any or all of this infrastructure, which turns a gas supply line replacement into a scavenger hunt.

None of which makes this any more pleasant for you!

[sovay]

Boston’s streets are an unholy Tetris of water, gas, electricity, transportation tunnels, ratty raceways, internet fiber and graft.

I like your inclusion of that last element.

[gwynnega]

ARGHHHHHHH!

[sovay]

ARGHHHHHHH!

I cherished these brief months without cartoonishly loud crash-bang-boom noises in our immediate vicinity!

[asakiyume]

This was so hilarious (though the consequences for your sleep are not) that I read it out to Wakanomori, who also appreciated it.

"I just want to sleep ever again in my life" is a great sentence.

[sovay]

This was so hilarious (though the consequences for your sleep are not) that I read it out to Wakanomori, who also appreciated it.

That's entertainment!

"I just want to sleep ever again in my life" is a great sentence.

It's true, too.

[rushthatspeaks]

Vintage. Vintage? Vintage.

I hope the copywriter's boss congratulated them.

[sovay]

Vintage. Vintage? Vintage.

I bet if it breaks it's artisanal.

[kathmandu]

"...for some reason which may just be nationalism states as far-flung from the original thirteen colonies as South Dakota and Florida have since gotten in on the act."

Speaking as a transplant, my impression is that for a while our tax returns were processed through an MA site. Patriot's Day being a holiday meant that we got an extra day to complete and return our taxes. We were all therefore grateful for its existence.

[sovay]

for a while our tax returns were processed through an MA site. Patriot's Day being a holiday meant that we got an extra day to complete and return our taxes.

Honestly I am delighted to hear this. Thank you for weighing in.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh no! Roadworks! <3

[sovay]

Oh no! Roadworks!

Right? The worst. One of it!

[thisbluespirit]

They've been attacking me for the last two days! Yesterday wasn't so bad because they just dug a hole round the corner and then went off and painted ominous yellow patterns all over the road hereabouts, but today they set up camp at the end of my little street and dug that up. But they've been gone for a while now, and I have hopes that tomorrow they'll go and dig up round the other corner, because they look as if they plan to. idk what they're doing, though. If they sent a note round, it was ages ago and I recycled it in denial anyway.

[sovay]

Yesterday wasn't so bad because they just dug a hole round the corner and then went off and painted ominous yellow patterns all over the road hereabouts, but today they set up camp at the end of my little street and dug that up.

Oh, no. May I hope they have done their work around the other corner and moved on?

[thisbluespirit]

Not yet! But I am being much more disciplined about putting earplugs in, so I'm managing, if a bit miserably and grumpily.

[starlady]

"Vintage" is cracking me up. Somehow I missed that they once used cast iron pipes? I guess it's better than the older wooden ones whose failure mode seems to be rotting through and creating giant sinkholes.

[sovay]

I guess it's better than the older wooden ones whose failure mode seems to be rotting through and creating giant sinkholes.

Oh, jeez, that's so horrifying I just laughed.

[starlady]

It happens all the time in the Philadelphia area! Only after I left did I realize that other places maybe weren't dealing with huge sinkholes in the roads constantly.

[sovay]

Only after I left did I realize that other places maybe weren't dealing with huge sinkholes in the roads constantly.

We have potholes of doom to the point that I wish I could enclose a note with my taxes saying "road maintenance and infrastructure repair please," but to my knowledge we do not have (keyn-ahora) sinkholes!

[movingfinger]

Chelan, Washington, still had a functional section of wooden water main around 2010! I assume they have gotten around to replacing it since then, but if it was cedar, it could last a while! I remember reading an interview with the guy responsible for the water department, who had spent his youth working on wooden-pipe systems in the area. Trees are something Washington could supply cheaply and in abundance, so no surprise that everyone used them! Back east and in the UK, I think elm was the preferred wood, but I'm sure they'd use pine or whatever if that's what they had.

That gas pipe could be around 125 years old, at least, right? Unless it was put down in the 1920s, which was probably the last big gas-laying period for a city as built up as yours.

[sovay]

Back east and in the UK, I think elm was the preferred wood, but I'm sure they'd use pine or whatever if that's what they had.

I had no idea. Cedar pipe!

That gas pipe could be around 125 years old, at least, right? Unless it was put down in the 1920s, which was probably the last big gas-laying period for a city as built up as yours.

I have been unable to find any statements on the exact or even approximate age of gas main about to be replaced on our street (the asphalt has been spray-painted like ritual magic, traffic cones are proliferating in former parking spots), but I am hoping to get a look at it when it comes out of the ground and perhaps be able to date it that way. If it's anything like the rest of the infrastructure around here, it can't imagine it's remotely recent. Somerville was a streetcar suburb in the nineteenth century. You can tell because it is very unfriendly to cars in the twenty-first.