Life-Building: Tales from the Construction Site
There’s a crane growing out my window.
Stand Clear, the canned British voice proclaimed… It was 6.30 am and the digger/excavator/menace was at it again. Those of you who’ve lived next to a high-rise building site can relate. You others — be relieved you haven’t.
No sense trying to get back to sleep now, my only thought that November morning as I trudged toward the coffee machine, and awake at last, pointed my head toward the apartment build site looming out the balcony window.
That new tree-trunk-size monstrosity is a huge crane. Towering top, no leaves, just one long, orange bough pointed thataway.
Despite the pandemic, the developers next door resumed construction. That’s an end to sleeping late. How to better use the time? Begin lessons in life-building.
Life is a lot like a construction site. You want to build something, you got to tear something out first.
Construction Progress (3 of ?) Rookie Observer’s Notes:
- One. Rip up the ground. Remove soil. Repeat.
- Two. Level the ‘new’ bottom (pit, cavern). Pour a thin, lean layer of cement.
- Three. Provide the machinery which allows for future construction, that crane and excavator (with master operators).
One. A true master at his work, as I soon discovered, the operator took his excavator to the task with a vengeance. But I observed a delicacy about his ‘scoop’, more like my prying out ice cream than his digging up tons of dirt. The pit edges were straightened as he twisted the bucket (the google-search name for that shovel thing) then pulled it gently to even up the sides. The hole was impressive but even this Picasso of the building site couldn’t have done his work without the three trucks taking away the soil he had removed, scoop by scoop.
Even tearing, digging and dumping takes planning. And co-removers, not to mention a place to dispose of the soil, rocks, and ripped out young trees. That means time, man-power, and provision for the left-overs — unless you intend to include a lonely dirt mountain next to the building.
Life-Building 101.
Can I adequately plan for my new life changes? Who is in it with me? Are they the ‘right’ people? Where will the ‘remains’ of the old get stored/trashed?
Two. How do they get the bottom so flat? The rain soon put their proficiency to the test. The thin layer of cement they had laid was almost perfect.
When those November downpours hit, there was soon a lake where the hole had been. But the surprise? The water didn’t wash away their work at all. Out came the pump which put that rainwater into the already prepared drainage system.
My hubby tells me that that thin cement layer also protects the infrastructure from corrosion, helps in groundwater drainage, and other benefits. This isn’t even the real foundation!
That thin layer was due to the ‘giant bendable straw’. Be patient with me, you Builders. The cement was sluiced down a football-field length hose of an extension to get the cement truck goo into the hole, with one or two intrepid (workers) sculptors guiding it along the new bottom. Brilliant. Great entertainment quality to boot.
Meanwhile, measurements were on-going from the bosses at the side of the hole. Then there were two poor underlings standing ankle-deep while spreading the soon-to-be solid cement mass along the bottom. In the cold, November rain, no less.
In life-building?
What needs safeguarding in my plans and preparations? How will I measure my progress? Do I have partners available for both the long and short haul? Are they, and importantly, am I up to the exhausting menial tasks as well as the glory?
Three. The crane is not the only visitor here — the little buildings with their tools, the site supervisor’s plans, and even the dumpster — they will all go the way of the soil.
Investment. People. Plans. Hidden essential costs.
What level of investment must I be ready to dedicate to my life choices? What temporary helps are required? Knowledge? Who will be able to enjoy my work when finished? Will my ‘staff’( otherwise known as family), survive my pouring all my time into building that business, that dream ediface?
We are building our lives and investing in it all the time.
My husband and I have recently moved into that same developer’s adjacent four-floor apartment complex to make ready for retirement. Now, we bless the day we decided to do it. A year ago though, we dreaded the bridge loan from the bank and the physical work to pack up, sell, or throw out a lifetime of belongings from the large family house. Those decisions were ever so hard to make. The work was rigorous.
Was it worth it all? On this side of 2020 sitting in our cozy, new home, we can say it was. Not to mention the pre-Covid lockdown timing…
Back to the building site.
I can’t wait to watch the goings-on out my window in the weeks to come. And learn ‘other’ lessons. There are spiritual takeaways from that site as well.
Wonder what my ‘crane’ element is in life? Or perhaps, who (Who)?
This building site will have one extra observer with a bird’s-eye view. A life-building learner from its wisdom too, I hope.
