Paving roads

is a strange business. 

They are supposed to be paving our street at present. The new WITS responsible for this turned up yesterday morning. They had warned everyone two days previously that the street needed to be clear of cars. (There was the usual "please park in the next street" sort of warning in the letter boxes.)

Of course at least one person still expected to be able to get out of his driveway on the day. The workman driving the enormous lorry which would collect the old bitumen had to move a few metres down the street so this person could go to work. 

But then they started work digging up the old bitumen. I watched H... the youngest child from across the road, watching all this. There was a machine the size of a medium sized dinosaur. It had a long neck and the old bitumen was spouting out of its mouth into the enormous lorry. It went back and forth, back and forth. H... watched from a vantage point that was well and truly away from it all. He had a slight frown on his face. At one point he shook his head. Something had gone wrong. There were shouts. The machinery stopped. Blessed silence for a little while.

H... continued to watch for most of the morning. He didn't move far. The lorry left and another arrived. They filled that too. Something else was done. Much later in the afternoon a vehicle came down the street pouring new bitumen on one half of the street. H.... was back watching. He watched the man on the roller which smooths out the bitumen.

I am assuming, from the noises, that they are pouring bitumen on this side of the street today but this morning I heard a conversation between H... and the workmen.

"Have you done your inspection?"

"Yes. You can do the other side today."

"Right boss. Can you do your inspection this afternoon? We've got another job on tomorrow."

I didn't hear the answer but one of the workmen has just come in to get some drinking water from our big tank. He gave me a grin and said, 

    "Great little fella across the way. Would his mum or dad mind if we took him down the street this afternoon and showed him what we have done?"

My response was that they would be delighted for someone to show the budding engineer what had been done.

"There's only one problem," I told him, "He will want to ask a lot of questions."

There was a roar of laughter as the workman repeated this to his mates.  I think H.... might have a very interesting afternoon.