Drama Everywhere

Concrete pouring is a daily occurance on the theater site now. By the end of today we can see four walls indicated, perpendicular to the far wall of the theater. We may learn the steps of building a theater from beginning to end at this rate.
The soccer field site is looking more up each day. The man hole frame (names!)—the white concrete thing with the man hole on top--has been our indicator of the upward expansion of the field. The less we see of it, the closer the workmen are to completion.
The trench leading to the transformer seems to undergo transformation itself each day. Today it is the scene of a little drama (not shown). The driver of a small loader is delivering a load of sand to the end closest to the island when his machine slides off the side and into the trench. Fortunately, it lodges between the side and the concrete shaft in the trench. He nonchalantly rolls out of the cab (the trench isn’t very deep at this point) climbs out of the trench, walks around the island to fetch a small back hoe to pull his machine out. In the meantime, the forklift driver arrives and is attaching a chain to the back of the loader. The loader is pulled out, chain detached, loader driver returns back hoe, and resumes his task; all in a day’s work.
The photo of the roofs demonstrates the residue of dust that has settled on everything. In the last few days the water tank driver has been watering down the truck path between the hill and the soccer field, so dust clouds are seen far less often. Small favors, big thanks!

New Sights=New Revelations

Today, Saturday, finds the dirt and ditch folks working. People coming onto the property may have gotten far enough down Hilton Drive to see the sign in pink letters—how striking! The adventurous would have to be all the way to the soccer field site to see a relatively newer addition to the fleet of machines; it’s a smaller compacter with one large cylinder in front, needed for smaller areas. Coming back to the island area with the commemorative bricks, the interesting phenomenon of crossing trenches mentioned in yesterday’s entry is becoming more and more apparent.
Coming inside and down to the ground floor and turning several corners brings one to the new entrance to the theater, through which one can step to see the new room from the inside. Ah, the sight of progress!

Wonders Unfold

As has been said before, there’s dirt and then there’s dirt. The photo shows a variety on the soccer field site as the men alternate to give the field more stability. The compacter, bull dozer, and when necessary, the disker, are all busy with the dirts dumped today or held over from other days. The level rises.
On the theater site, the blocks are getting higher on an inner wall, while the outer walls continue to show signs of more concrete to come.
Hilton hill continues to undergo face dropping as the site manager checks the valley at its northern end.
Trenches continue to be the site of pipe and box burials as we determine more and more that we have been daily traversing a veritable system of catacombs. And some of these shafts, mostly circular, cross over one another. Strange world beneath our feet (and cars)! The mysterious concrete extension beneath the road near the island (referred to yesterday) reveals, with drilling, that it contains pipes that are carrying electric cables out to the transformer (big green box) aside the parking lot. Wonders unfold!

Puzzles And Progress

Today's photography itinerary is full. Heritage Hall roof, gym roof, theater site, Polar Express hill, soccer field, Dixie Hghwy. future sidewalk, parking lot site west of gym, new trench west of school circle island. Whew! Unfortunately, several blogs would be needed to show the reader all of this since only about five or six photos can be shown per blog (if blogger is lucky and program is cooperative). One photo shows, in a dim fashion, a workman torching a rod--purpose unknown to blogger. Another shows the cover on the edge of the circle off to reveal wires. One suspects this has to do with the a-c installation. Nearby sit the new door frames, somewhat exciting since they look forward to finishing touches. In the same area is the new trench at the end of the island and heading westward. Inside, not to far from the surface is the concrete bridge that blogger has seen before in trenches and finds mystifying. What is the concrete enclosing? In the back on the theater site, a workman saws a concrete block (if it doesn't fit, make it fit) in a cloud of dust. This suggests a few hazards, among many, in construction work.
While all this goes on, the trucks rumble to and fro between the hill behind the garage building and the soccer site. The surface rises, and so do hearts.
P.S. One photo is over the other, a nice one. To access the covered photo, just click on it. Good luck (blogger could use some, too.)

Construction: A Metaphor For Life

This is Wednesday; what is Wednesday's child? At any rate, holes are put into roofs and then closed again. The open roof you see is above the lavatories next to Heritage Hall. The space is being utilized for the a-c unit for the gym. Preparatory work has been going on in this space for some time now, so connections are made quickly and the hole is covered. Way to go.
The placement of blocks is moving ahead on the theater site (more stacks of blocks have appeared, and as with most other materials here, there are blocks and there are blocks). Preparations go on for more contrete pouring, as one would hope.
Hilton Dr. hill is undergoing transformation as trucks are loaded (six big buckets per) and commence barreling down the hill. It reminds blogger of the Polar Express. The workmen dump the dirt and shoot back up the hill. They are behind schedule with this endeavor because of the rain and slow drying of dirt, so time is of the essence. The dirt being dumped in the photo may give an idea of how the it is rising on the field. The manhole top you see you have seen before when much more of it was exposed. It's top pretty much marks the level of the field.
In the basement movement today is less perceptible, but some efforts take more time than others. That is true of life in general, not so?
P.S. Blogger doesn't know why all is underlined today? This is true of much of life, not so?

A Time To Tear Down, And A Time...

Tuesday today. The surveying goes on, thankfully. One can imagine what would happen if it didn't. So many skills needed for this kind of multi-project! Early this morning the crane arrived to put in place the strips of corrugated flooring just outside the building. This is, of course, over the room constructed days ago (seen in previous pictures). To the right of this room are the metal frames for cement pouring. The boards are helping to support the frames until the cement is dry enough for the frames to be removed. (The blogger really likes this photo for its design quality.)
Up on the hill, more excavation and dirt moving is taking place as the workmen commence with the leveling of the land in preparation for eventual tennis courts. At the bottom of the hill, the tranch work for pipe going to the detention pond inches toward the brow of the hill on the expressway side--the trench's destination.
Moving indoors and down to the ground floor, we see the bricked up window (formerly of glass brick) in the consumer science room. In '63 this room was three rooms (or was it four?). They were part of the music department, and all but the last were practice rooms. It was the dept. office. An interesting note: when walls dividing these rooms were torn down several years ago, the workers found sand in the walls, apparently as part of the acoustics. This whole area is now one lab for consumer science. The other ground floor change has taken place in the locker/strength training room. The showers and toilet have now been torn out, with only the last unit left.
And so ends another quiet day on Hilton Drive.

Rods, I-Beams, Pipes, Progress!

Monday: back on the job with activity focused on the path to the detention pond, the theater site, the stairwell, and of course, the a-c unit work in the gym. For the first, you can see a pipe being carried by a loader and being steadied by the workman. The line holding the pipe is then transferred to the bucket of the excavator and lowered into the trench--majorly, about twenty feet. This trench is heading for the detention pond on the south side, overlooking the expressway.
The two theater site pictures show an area full of rods used to reinforce the poured concrete, and a stack of i-beams. These are an exciting addition since they harbinger the girder system in the frame of the building. That's someway off; these i-beams may be for such things as the floor that now extends Heritage Hall (seen from underneath in the photo) and possibly for the stairwell that will come up from the ground floor to the floor of the theater . This is pure speculation.
On the parking lot, things have altered a bit. A longer segue to the lot from Hilton Dr. has been laid with more gravel, intended for use only by construction vehicles. The Heights drive is now two-way (de-ja vu). Kingdoms rise; kingdoms fall; N.D.A. expands.

July 20: Post Storm Splendor

Taken from the Sisters' porch, 4th. floor. Praise God for a hint of God's beauty.

P.S. You may enjoy enlarging these. (Recall: click on the pic. and move around in it. To get back to blog, click arrow in upper left of screen.)

All Things Great, Few Things Small

Water turned off—hydrant connected to new pipe—water turned back on. Inside the building, people move about as if nothing is happening outside; of course, there are the puzzled looks out the windows. This is not to say that life in the interior is not affected by life on the exterior. Water is turned off, after all, inside the building. Also, there is the earnest desire for traffic/dust lights when one ventures out on foot across the parking lot.
The lime mixer near the kitchen dock is put into operation, and the mix poured into a rectangular wheeled bucket. This goes to the site down near the building where the new theater will connect: the men are building a wall with the concrete blocks right up against the foundation of the existing building. Meanwhile other workers are preparing for future pouring of concrete on the new entrance wall on the west side.
Dirt continues to relocate from the hill site to the soccer site, with some dirts just changing places as the right kind lands where it is needed. Dirt, it seems, employs a mysterious science. Life and work go on on this hot Friday.
Saturday comes and so do the workers on both the field/hill sites and the theater site. The latter work only half the day, proceeding with the task of readying trenches for the laying of concrete. In the photo, way on the left, you can see the opening in the gym wall for the new door that will open onto the entrance garden for the theater. The two existing gym doors will lead into the annex.
The hill, however is seeing some new action. Dirt from the huge pile up there is on the move to the soccer site and to the planned construction parking site nearer the theater site. An apron of gravel right off Hilton Dr. is being used as the base for the path up the hill to the pile of dirt. The gravel apparently allows for some leverage for the ascent by the huge trucks. Most things in this operation, including the operation itself, are huge.

Onward, Upward, Outward, Coolward (Coolward?)

Tomorrow comes; things are altered. The new arrival of the day is the equipment for the mixing of the mortar for the laying of the concrete blocks. A new lesson can be anticipated! The cement mixers arrive and more concrete is poured into the waiting trench that runs parallel to the building. The men get intense at this point—all attention focused on the proper pouring and smoothing of the lumpy gray stuff. The long trench is filled in due time.
On the other side of the building at the east end, the Michels people are making headway with the trench for the new hydrant water line. They reach the turning point, heading now for the hydrant that is close to the drive above the soccer site.
Meanwhile the monstrous trucks trundle the across the parking lot, moving dirt, raising dust clouds. Someday this WILL end.
Inside the building, the a-c folks are installing more ducts and moving metal sheets to the roof for the unit to be built there. Cool.

Old Front, New Front

This morning marks the third concrete pouring for the theater foundation. Two people could dance now in the room that has been completed in the only basement portion of the theater-soon-to-be since the floor is now poured and smoothed. The men move out to the east wall trench which is criss-crossed with rods to hold the concrete. The pouring here is accomplished within the first hour of pouring. These pourings prove to be among the easy job for workers. They claim that the difficult task will be laying and smoothing concrete on the sloped floor of the theater. One can imagine. The trench for the next wall crossing from east to west is prepared.
Another development in the back yard is the digging of a trench outside of the development office and moving toward the tennis court. This is for a new water line as is testified by the fire hydrant lying near by. This is a Michels operation; they are the pipeline people. The photo of the pipes already suggest that the line is headed toward the soccer field site, then around the corner of the drive way. This will be accomplished by the end of the day. Look around; what is here today may be gone or altered by tomorrow.
Inside the gym the air conditioning installation goes on. The other day the men drilled a hole into the east wall of the gym that opens on the outside above Heritage Hall. The lines for something associated with the air conditioning have been drawn on the hall roof. Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of The Chronicles of Pandalia.

All Action on All Fronts

Today things are happening on all fronts—the field, the hill, the theater site, inside the gym. Starting with the last, more and more duct work is evident as the men continue creating holes in the wall. One trusts that these will be filled with meaningful apparatus.
Rods are being fixed into the trench on the east side of the theater, harbinger of exciting things to come. A new trench seems to be underway on the soccer site again, a hint of what goes on underground that we have no notion of. Dirt from the hill continues to be carried amid clouds of dust (and a hearty Hi Ho…). For now it is being piled into quite a hill, the contours of which are continuously defined by a bull-dozer. This will all be spread later after more pipe work is done.
Another wrinkle, a delivery of concrete blocks has appeared near the kitchen dock. Things will be looking up with these blocks, literally. Blogger can't seem to remedy the sideways picture of this delivery, but did say that things will be looking up!