Busy, Busy, Busy!

The "hooks" on the outside of the theater walls now have their use defined: they hold the insulation against which the bricks are being laid. The men have been working, too, on the back entrance/stairwell. A close look at the photo reveal the steps inside the door. The second view of this area is from the 4th. floor. The floor of the elevated seating area is just about finished; one more level of concrete must be laid. The stage front awaits its final concrete installment. Work continues on the prop room as seen from the SW corner. The foundation of the gym annex is just about finished and ready for concrete blocks. Busy, busy, busy!

Somethings New Have Been Added

Apologies for the on-the-side-photos. Blogger has never figured out how to remedy this problem. Dear blog.com....

Below is today's blog. Really. And right side up!

Always Something New To Behold

What's going on in front of the gym? The annex is beginning to unfold with the laying of the foundation! What's up in the theater site? More concrete is laid in the elevated seating area while the stage foundation is set for construction. (This is probably what the blogger/photographer misguessed as the excavation for the lower seats and the orchestra pit the other day. Humility advances ((maybe))).
On the outside surface of the total site, some of the new pavement leading to the theater loading dock (maybe) is laid. What are those red lines on the parking lot? More rain garden areas are coming! What's that red water tank truck doing on the campus again? The soccer field receives a much needed watering to preserve the grass growth that has taken place there. The geese? No sign of them for almost two weeks. No predictions on that front!

As We Were Saying...

Things look worse before they start looking a thousand times better. Excavation has begun for the lower seats and the orchestra pit in the theater, making this area harder to negotiate for the workers. The interior of the theater is somewhat in shadow much of the day as the season progresses and since the walls have reached their intended height. The wall of the main building that is shared with the lobby of the theater is being given a covering of concrete blocks, as can be seen in one photo above--another intriguing fact. It has been interesting to see how each of the main walls of the theater are finished off at the top. Each hints of steel beams to come, but each in a different way.

The steps leading from the ground floor of the main building to the lobby of the theater and to the hallway to the stage area are visible in another photo. Lots of heres and theres to watch, some obvious and others full of mystery to the lay observer, such as this blogger. To blog (in this capacity) is to learn.

Starring The Theater (Mostly)

The theater is really moving forward. More concrete poured in the elevated seating area, west wall of the theater proper up completely (lobby wall not yet), and everything holding together well. The storm of 9/14 did no damage to the site. The photo of the south wall facing the expressway is filled with short extending rods as are the other exteriors: one of the mysteries that will be revealed in time. On the other side of our world, one rain garden adjacent the parking lot is beginning to hint of a brighter future. In this case as in most construction work, things look worse before they look a thousand times better.

In The Swing Of Things

To be able to blog, or not to be able to blog? That is the question. If you live in the area, you will appreciate that we were not able to blog. Our power was fully restored after the wind storm of Sunday, 9/14, at 11 PM Wednesday, 9/17. While we had a limited amount of electricity before that, we did not have enough for use of computers and a few other major things. Today is the first day of classes this week. The “swing of things” has returned.
Construction, however, goes on. The west wall of the theater proper rises. (In the photo, the green signs you see are on I-75.) The walls for the off-stage storage are progressing also. Nearby, looking from Hilton Drive, we see the yard that is the site of the future gym annex.
On the other side of the campus, the workmen pour concrete and at last finish the sidewalk astride the parking lot. Only the corner of the drive from the field side of the school needs to be completed in that area. There are still some rain-garden areas in the offing on the parking lot (stay tuned!). In one photo above you can see a young man creating and strengthens the lines for parking spaces. While much work on the total expansion project goes on, it is heartening to see some aspects reach completion. Praise to God and thanks to donors and workers!

(Sun)Light, Camera, Action

Action on all fronts these days. The tennis court is seeded and hayed while the sidewalk is graveled and cemented. The west wall of the theater emerges quickly, almost sprouts (note in the photo the holes on the south wall for the girders); the theater yard merits another trench (another trench?); and despite the geese (still arriving around 7:15 a.m. daily) a harvest of green blades is materializing on the soccer field. Where to look first? What to photograph last? All is on-going and exciting to Pandas.

Girders, Gardens, and Geese

Things seem to move more slowly now that one has only one site to watch. Things are happening on the theater site, but not as dramatically as in the earlier days, at least not for the present. However, bricks parked near the site do stir the imagination. Certainly things will get very dramatic (it is a theater site, after all) when the steel girders arrive and more walls begin to sprout. One can observe easily that scaffolding is removed from the south wall, revealing the holes, presumably for the girders, as viewed from the fourth floor porch. (The photo for the day shows the east side of the theater, close to the building, revealing the temporary fire exit.)
On that porch, by the way, the Sisters have their own yard, so to speak. It is tended lovingly by Sister M. Shauna, the resident president, who minds the beauty element with several planters, and Sr. M. Ethel, our agriculturalist, who is raising peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. While the flowers come to the end of their season, the harvest of edibles is going strong.
Luckily, geese don’t go for flowers and edibles, but they love routing through the hay on the soccer field to find the treasured grass seed. We can only hope there’s some left to sprout. The law must be observed (recall that the field may not be left bare)! The geese care nothing for the law, but they are mighty impressed when a dog is set loose on the field. "Another day," they honk as they depart.

Old (read Trench), New (read Seed!)

Amazing: another trench, this time on the tennis court site. Must be necessary, or the men wouldn't be doing it in 90+ degree heat. The theater site drama develops further as we view it from what is more convincingly the inside. And the soccer field site gets a late summer outfit of grass seed. By the end of the day, the hay is spread. All we need is a gentle rain. The sun sets on the day's work (although not today's--but wasn't it grand!). Stay tuned.