Yesterday morning, around 9:00 I heard a ruckus outside our house. OK, really it was just that some trucks stopped across the street and men were outside talking. Being the busybody that I am I opened the drapes and looked out to see what was going on. There was a road crew, for reasons of anonymity I will not say if it was a township crew or Penn DoT.
Anyway, it looked like they were going to work on drainage across the street. They knew what they were there to knew and were ready to get started.
First thing they had to do was change the blade on the macadam cutter – I know, a really technical term. Really, couldn’t they have change the blade back at the garage before they left to come to the job?
It didn’t take long to get the blade off. Now they went to the truck to get a new blade so they can put it on. A slight problem – they didn’t have a replacement blade with them. Really? Shouldn’t they have checked to see if they had everything they would need before they left their station?
Now they had a piece of equipment that couldn’t be used because they did not have a blade for it. What to do? Well, they obviously had the answer – put the old blade back on. Next came the hard part. A decision had to be made and whoever was in charge made it. Pack up all of the trucks, men, and equipment and leave, probably to go back to the garage to get a new blade.
Really? Couldn’t just one person have gone back to get the part they needed? I guess they work in packs and where one goes so go the others. This is just what happened.
I decided to have a cup of coffee and then go out and mulch the first round of leaves that had fallen from the trees in our back yard. As I was getting the mower out of the garage I heard some noise on the street. The work crew was back. This time they had everything they needed. The fact that it was now 11:00 didn’t seem to bother them. I just shook my head and started mulching.
As I was working on the leaves I started to wonder. If I were still teaching and I came to school one morning and realized that I left something I needed for the day’s lesson at home could I have gone to my principal and told him my problem? Could I have then told him I was going home to get what I forgot and would be back when I had what I needed? Would he have been OK with this? Really?
arjeha 
Could you have taken a team of teachers to go home with you and get what you forgot? Ha! Some people don’t think in terms of efficiency. Amazing, isn’t it?
What a crew! They remind me of a few I’ve seen working around New Jersey.
I think it’s something in their DNA! It seems very common in the road crews that we have in AR. All you can do is shake your head and think, “this is where my tax dollars go”.
Funny that it took so much time, & that they all had to go. Maybe it was then time for the morning break, so they just went back to have it? I don’t see much of this around so can’t comment about our crews-hope they’re better!
Ha! It would never have occurred to you to ask to go home. You would have been resourceful and improvised. whether you wanted to or not.
Guess if it were a teacher, we could just load the buses back up and send the kids home til later!
I guess your road crew wasn’t very good at navigation if they needed everyone’s help to get back to the station. Hopefully they had detail instructions for the drainage issue!
This makes me chuckle. Reminds me of the crew we saw walking in the Arboretum last week. We kept seeing them walking, just like us. I’m not sure what they were up to – keeping an eye on ladies walking in the park?
Been reading through some of your posts this morning. I love how you write.