Fermeture d'eau

Monday morning while getting ready to go to work, I hear the needling siren that usually accompanies the mass tow-truck attach that goes on just before they do the street cleaning. When a block is targeted for snow removal, the city workers come by and put these orange signs up on all the parking sign poles (they have special hooks just for them) as well as paper signs on posts stuck in the snow. They indicate when the street will be closed. It's a 12 hour period and you usually have about half a day at least before they begin. If you don't get your car, the tow-trucks come. They blast their siren a few times up and down the street, giving everyone a final warning, then they start towing. They don't have the time or the space to take them to any special city yard. They just park them wherever they can, so you may get another ticket for being parked illegally, assuming you can find your car in the first place!

I'm going to go into more detail about the snow removal process here later. The thing was, on this monday morning, the snow had all already been removed. Also, I don't have a car, so the siren for me is usually an exciting announcement, like the circus is coming! As my longtime readers know, I love the snow removal process. So I went out to see what was up and this single truck with the words "Fermeture d'eau" in a big sign on the side was going up our street slowly. The driver saw me on my porch and rolled down the window. He yelled out to me that the water main was going to be closed on our block for at least half the day. I could barely hear him over his engine and the sound of the machines working at the bottom of the block. It was all very old school and untechnological. Thoroughly enjoyable. I was able to catch a quick video of him going up the block to warn the other residents who were still at home.



I went in, filled up the kettle and a couple of big pots just in case. I also warned the upstairs neighbours, who are visitors from New Zealand participating in an apartment swap. Howdeldy-doodledy, neighbour!