random thoughts – Day 1,624 – (Wednesday) – work watching

Road project progress.

The Shattuck Street cobblestone road project is showing progress. Some of the stones have been lifted off and carted away in a dump truck. Now that the work isn’t directly below our window, the project is a bit less noisy, which is a blessing for us, but the Quilt Museum on the corner is probably not enjoying it.

Throughout any in-office day, those of us on site wander over to the window for a look at the outside world several times a day. Sometimes we just need something to look at that isn’t a computer screen or it's something to do while waiting for the Keurig machine, microwave, or toaster oven to finish performing their food and beverage magic. We check the weather, the volume of traffic, what people are wearing to see if we need a sweater or jacket to go outside. 

Today, a colleague noticed unusual activity out on the sidewalk near the unusual road project. A guy who seemed to be high or a coordinated drunk was moving along in a little cha cha step, walk, turn combination on the sidewalk along the chain link fence enclosing the road project. Every few feet he would shake the fencing sections and seemed to be yelling at the workers on the project. He did some weird physical gestures like he was imitating a dinosaur or maybe the bucket digger equipment at work. Then he would do a few more dance steps on the sidewalk then walk, then twirl down the sidewalk some more.

He squatted on the sidewalk and lit some sort of paper rolled smoking treat. He stuck his head between the parking pay station and a “Pay Here” sign pole and we were just waiting for him get stuck there. That didn't happen, and he got up. Further down the fence there was a gap between the sections and the dude slithered through the space into the hard hat construction site. Then he did a victory dance like he was a football player who just scored the game winning touchdown or maybe Rocky Balboa at the top of the staircase.

Just having a chat with the law between dance-walk performances.

Happy dancing dude returned to the sidewalk and dance/walked a bit towards the little park. He made his way back up the sidewalk towards Subway. A policeman appeared on the scene to have a few words with the guy and they walked a few steps, separated by the fence. That’s about when I returned to my desk full of work. Watching other people work and the fun little sidewalk  show was a nice performance art entertainment break, but I had my own work to deal with.

Later, a colleague and I took a walk to get outside on the sunny day. We stuck to straightforward walking with no embellishments. The equipment that looks like Tonka toys from the window is impressively larger when viewed from the ground, but the project itself looks less impressive with the limited view. The worksite seen from four floors up is more interesting, and the next few weeks will be a visually captivating experience.