There was some concern that it might push its way under the neighbours' house and eventually get into their basement and possibly even ours. So we went over to look at it and my neighbour came out. She had called the city but hadn't gotten a response yet. We talked about it, mulled it over. Orlando used to work in construction and when I suggested we could dig a little canal to drain it into the main pit, he said that would be a good idea. My other neighbour was game and I went and got some shovels. And so we dug away! It was all send recently placed there so it went pretty quickly. I worked away at the end and my neighbour dug the passage.
She's a keeper!
Breakthrough!
Our street gets a lot of bike traffic and we attracted a fair amount of attention. Here you can see Orlando on the right who oversaw the whole operation. One annoying dude, most likely a McGill student, stopped by and asked what we were doing, when I explained it to him, he said "you should be careful on a construction site." Ladies and gentleman, the pussy youth of today who also feel compelled to share their fear of doing actual work with their elders. Fortunately, we were on a construction site, so after I beat him to death with my shovel, I was able to quite quickly and easily bury him. He will forever rest in peace underneath the new aqueduct. Hopefully he will reincarnate into a context where he can build some character.
What was funny was that my neighbour had to go to a social engagement and she kept saying how she had to change and leave in fifteen minutes, but she started getting obsessed with the canal and kept coming back and deepening it.
And it turned out to be a good thing, too, because as the water lowered, it revealed the source of the leak. An old lead pipe that was part of the original aqueduct. It isn't supposed to have any water running through it, but the valve at the top of the street is so old, they can't close it properly. This pipe must have gotten broken during the work on Friday. Either they knew about it and hammered it off or they didn't see it.
A guy did show up. He was sent by the city, but he's actually the contractor responsible for the temporary water pipes. The city had sent him assuming something had gone wrong with his work. He was a bit gruff but lightened up when he saw that we had managed to drain the pit. He sort of joked at us that we should have closed the leak as well and Orlando gave him a bunch of shit about how we pay taxes and blah blah blah. It was good stuff. Moments like that make me love living in the city. The guy got down and very quickly hammered the lead pipes shut.
So all's well that end's well! Now it's time for some beers on the Main and some Urban Jam.
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