Thursday, July 20, 2017

City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York.

Since my previous blog post, much work has been continuing along my street to repair the damage recently done to the electrical power sources.  The city heat has been oppressive, but the teams of Con Edison workers have nonetheless been working very long hours to complete the massive project.

It is a pleasure to share some pictures that might illustrate the nature of the challenge.


The above photo shows a large tangle of old wires removed during the repair work.  The following photo shows the same tangle, plus an iconic yellow taxi, a parked bike, and also orange traffic cones placed along our stretch of Broadway during the massive repair work being done below street level.


The following picture, looking south on Broadway, indicates what a large section of that avenue has been temporarily removed from vehicular traffic access.  If you look carefully, you will see some of the workers in that crevasse.


On my own street, lots of large vehicles arrive for their part in the process and then depart, their places to be filled my other large vehicles and equipment.  It is quite an operation.


The workers are very professional and keep their various "work stations" very tidy and safe.


In this closer view of the same team, you can tell that one of the men is working below ground.  The temperature above ground is 90 F.


Plywood protective boxes have been constructed to keep non-professionals from getting too close to the open man holes.


A close look at the next photo will show you that there are many such "purpose built crates" along the street.  Everything is progressing steadily, carefully and surely towards a successful completion.  


Just to switch up the photographs a bit, I wanted to share this bouquet that I saw at yesterday's Union Square farmers market.  I have given the address of this blog page to some of the electrical rescue teams, and hope that they will see the flowers as a thank you for all their hard work.


I also thank you all who have visited and commented on my immediately previous post.  Together, these two posts show some different city views from those that I often share.  It's all part of NYC!

45 comments:

  1. Oh Frances, what a mess. Is it loud? Glad to know they know what they are doing. I bet they make the big bucks there, with incentives to hurry and get the job done.

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    1. Donna, I am actually very impressed by how orderly and neatly the work is being done. Yes, sometimes it's a bit noisy...but it's in a good cause. Most of the workers are employees of Consolidated Edison, the electric utility company and really look like they know their stuff! xo

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  2. Frances, my first thought was that you could knit the tangled wires into something attractive!!

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    1. Elizabeth, that's funny! I doubt I could even lift one of those cables...they are very different from the cables I know about in knitting lingo. xo

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  3. I saw on the news about the fire and how it affected the city all the way to Penn Station.
    Happy to know you are still fine as work continues.
    What a huge job the workers have to do and how wonderful they are so knowledgeable. I hope it is all fixed as soon as possible.
    The flowers are beautiful. So much nicer from what you find in the everyday markets.
    I would love to walk among the flower stalls at The Farmers Market.

    cheers, parsnip, thehamish and fergus

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    1. Parsnip, great progress is being made...and I guess you can tell that I am impressed by it all.
      I'd never before seen any bouquets with that particular combination of flowers. The market is really full of wonderful things right now! xo

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  4. It must be terribly difficult to work in the heat wearing all that protective gear; I can't imagine. Beautiful flowers. Take care.

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    1. Wilma, I can tell you that I do not envy these electrical workers their responsibilities or challenges. I thought those flowers were particularly pretty. Still promising to visit your page... xo

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  5. It's such a minuet, is it not. Precise movements. It could be Jane Austen.

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    1. That's a great way to describe it, Joanne. Another factor to all this is an attempt to allow our street to open to vehicles, even for curbside parking...that situation changes day to day. Different dances! xo

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  6. Hello Frances, nice to read from you. Sorry, have not been round a lot but wanted to say that your lovely 'thank you' bouquet could have been cut from my garden :-). xxx

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    1. Thanks for visiting, Bayou...always great to connect with you. xo

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  7. Such an interesting post Frances...it shows the hard work that these essential services entails and we often just take for granted. So nice that you highlighted the neat, safe and organised way of working by this team...and lovely that you send them a beautiful thank you bouquet too.x

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    1. Helen, I thought it might be interesting to show you all what goes on when something goes wrong around here! xo

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  8. Again it stands out that life has not ended in your country and goes on just the same. Just the same as here.

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    1. Yes, it was remarkable that the initial power loss after the explosion and fire was remedied within 24 hours, but I hope what's going on now will help prevent future power losses. Time will tell, as the cliche goes... xo

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  9. Cable to fibre optic by the look of it. I am amazed that vibrant New York has not done it before. Speed, speed, speed...

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    1. Tom, I think that we have had optic cable spreading its web underground gradually. I think it was last year that we started seeing the internet connection kiosks appearing on sidewalks all over the city. Is it possible that the old cables were just left underneath...just waiting for an explosion? I have no idea. Maybe I can find out from the Con Edison teams.

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  10. Best wishes for a beautiful weekend! Here in Sweden we have rain, rain and some more rain...it feels like autumn already!!
    Love from Titti

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    1. Good to see your comment, dear Titti. (I promise to be visiting you site soon...particularly if you can promise me some cool weather!) xo

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  11. Your pictures are fantastic. A chill of vertigo when I look at the workers in the ground.

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    1. Thank you so much...those workers have quite a task to accomplish!

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  12. I have been out of reach and just catching up. What an undertaking (quite literally) I'm glad to hear that things are rapidly returning to normal. Was the subway affected by the fire?

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    1. It's funny, Lucille. Some bits seem back to normal while other aspects have a long way to go.
      Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the subway was back to normal the day after the explosion. xo

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  13. Thanks for this update. I'm happy to see that somewhere in this crazy world, things can be fixed in a fairly orderly manner! I feel sorry, though, for people who have to work in the heat. Hope all will be back to "normal" soon. Hope you can get back to painting. It's coming along nicely!

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    1. Carol, the work continues, as does the heat and humidity...but the completion of the repair gets closer every day.
      Too noisy yesterday to work on my painting by the open window overlooking the center of the drilling and so forth. That's okay, gives me a chance to figure out what else needs to be adjusted in the painting. xo

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  14. I was sure I left a comment yesterday ... I think it got lost in cyber space!
    I was wondering if the NY library archives blogs that record local social history, what a resource yours will be to historians of the future.
    I also commiserated with those working in the hot conditions wearing all the protective clothing and gear. A long time ago I had the experience of accompanying the air testing team down a deep coal mine. Wearing the canvas suit, helmet and emergency pack, in the dark and dust and heat was something I'll never forget.

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    1. Sorry about that disappearance, Celia. I've noticed similar vanishings of some of my own comments or replies. Mysterious!
      Thank you for returning and for your thought about archiving blogs. I now wonder if libraries are doing such archiving.
      As I type this Saturday morning, there is more drilling immediately outside my front window...it started about 45 minutes ago. I remind myself that it is in a good cause! (Your coal mine experience sounds scary to me...what a brave woman you were to take part in that testing.) xo

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  15. Hi Frances, I am just catching up with your recent dramas! It looks like your splendid rescue team are doing a great job. It is amazing to think of all the infrastructure that goes into city living, the tangle of wires look so incomprehensible. I am amazed at the neatness of it all, let's hope everyone gets back to normal soon. X

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    1. Val, we get closer to normal every day. Just now, there is very loud drilling just outside my front window. I am trying to ignore it, while listening to the radio program featuring a reading from a vintage eye witness article from The New Yorker written by John Schell during the Viet Nam war. It makes an interesting contrast. xo

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  16. That is quite some renovation!

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    1. Indeed it is, Gina. There is still lots going on today with drilling and heavy, huge equipment. I am hoping the repair teams have a day off tomorrow! xo

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    1. Thank you, Regine. I really wanted to show what's involved in making these repairs!

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  18. Technology, urbanization, indeed, civilization, come with a price. So glad matters were dealt with expeditiously!

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    1. So true, Vicki. The power came back on the next day, but even now the work continues on the full repair...remove and replace, Does that have a familiar ring? xo

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  19. What spaghetti entrails the con-ed cables resemble!
    what a feat to restore power from all that - and bliss to see the flowers at the end.
    Whew!

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    1. Thanks Elizabeth. The repair teams are still at work, even in the rain! xo

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  20. We take so much for granted and it isn't until something goes wrong that we even have to think about how it all comes together.
    I sympathize with the noise you must be hearing - I find the summers so noisy as so much work has to be done in a short window of time. They are repairing the underground parking in the building next door and the drilling starts at 8am - the subway stn. across the street has decided to redo the roof of the entire station - it's an outdoor one - and next door has been having a lot of gardening work done and there seems to be daily use of one of those leaf blowers to tidy up afterwards! The only good thing is that it forces me to get up and out so I'm doing even more walking than usual! :-)
    Very thoughtful of you to send them the lovely bouquet.

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    1. Margie, thanks for the report from Toronto. You are so right about summertime being the time that much work is scheduled. And also that the resulting noise does prompt us to get out and about. xo

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  21. We're expecting something similar behind our house; but not sure when. A friend is having power taken to an old barn she is converting, and for some bizarre reason the power cables have to follow a very roundabout route. We're not looking forward to it!

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    1. Drilling and so forth still ongoing. Work began outside my window about 5 this morning. It's quite a project! At least the temperature cooled down for the past few days. Somehow the noise seems louder when it's hot, hot, hot.

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