18 June - 10 July: Days 233 - 255

After a very relaxing vacation in which i woke to the chirping of birds rather than the rumbling of heavy equipment, i'm back at Casa Demeanor, ready to report on the progress made at the substation site in my absence. Below are a series of pictures taken during the first week of my cyber-sabbatical, when i began my break from the internet, but before i hit the road for the official vacation. They are followed by a couple of pictures taken since i returned yesterday. It seems that my timing was good in choosing when to take a break. The job is in a transitional phase now, still gearing up for the actual building stage. A much smaller crew is on the job, and the changes since mid-June are not all that dramatic. 

Archive: 18 - 21 June

18 June

The excavator's work is nearly done, and only this small pile of rubble remains.

The small hand-pushed roller is gradually smoothing out the surface,
preparing it for the concrete foundation of the building. A small hill of
gravel remains (compare to 20 June picture below).

20 June:

The surface is now completely smooth at about four feet below ground level.

This picture was taken about an hour before the one above. The long pole being held by the worker
has a meter attached to it. It makes a beeping noise, and the worker calls out numbers. I think it has something to do with soil density and/or the presence of rocks because occasionally the worker will stop and apply bright pink spray paint to a spot. That spot will then be gone over with the excavator. The other worker has a rake and is unearthing the occasional small rock.

 21 June:

Trimming the wall at the south end of the site.

Adios, excavator crawler!

This, along with an update graciously provided by Chevanston Rogers Park (click here) on 29 June, brings us up to the present. Thanks, Chevanston!

9-10 July:

Here is how things looked on my return yesterday afternoon. The steel panels are being spray-painted with what appears to be a protective paint (the orange reminds me of the Rustoleum I used to paint the exposed pipes in one of the truly terrible apartments of my wayward youth) (**UPDATE 13 July. Please see 13 July entry for a corrected explanation of what's being done to the steel panels).  I may be a little out of training from all that listening to chirping birds and gentle ocean surf in the past few weeks, but this seems to me to be some of the noisiest work yet: imagine the sound of a very heavy-duty power-washer hitting a solid steel surface. 

9 July: Worker spray-painting the steel retaining wall

10 July: This section of the wall is being painted battleship-gray

10 July: The shift from orange to gray makes me wonder if perhaps we are seeing the outline
of the planned substation taking shape. It's never been clear to me just how big the substation will be;
I know that it is supposed to be about 30-35 feet high, but not how far down the block it will extend.