Grave Architecture

Date: March 20, 2007 9:43 AM

Grave Architecture

Crew #2 was but five strong for this day’s work. Despite our depleted ranks we still had just as productive a day. We were running up along the northbound lane of the Inland Island Highway, chipping up the piles of broom that we cut down what seems like weeks ago now. Oh yeah, it was weeks ago. One Maple Sugar Festival, one blown clutch on the chipper and various tasks in between kept us from finishing what we had started so long ago. That being said, once we’d begun chipping, the piles between Jingle Pot Road and the northern entrance to Nanaimo simply disappeared. The weather was quite a mixed bag today. Sun, cloud, rain, sleet or hail, finally deciding on sun by the end of lunch. The wind was steady mind you, which made for a lot of sawdust hazard for the eyes. My eye irritation from yesterday wasn’t quite as bad today though with the wind kicking up, the potential for a recurrence did abound. In the end, I’m glad to say that I made it through the day unscathed. For the most part I kept ahead of the chipper, dragging and arranging the piles of broom closer to the roadside for easier access. Of a sad note, I saw a deer in the ditch. A victim of the heavy traffic. It mustn’t have occurred too long previous because it had yet to take on a smell. We’ve seen many a roadkill along the highway in all various states of decomposition. Progress waits for no one. Whether flora or fauna.

Of particular note, Crew #2 came through today. Well, more specifically someone on the crew. Posterity and peril prevent me from mentioning names. I was completely oblivious to the play but after patiently waiting it out the recipient was rewarded. In jail it’s tough to remain out of the ‘loop,’ if one exists at all. For this I conclude that the talk that typically helps to develop said loop, was not. And as a result it was completely out of left field to my eyes. Having just written this, I see that the debris in my ‘left’ eye may have obscured my peripheral of that field. Either way, I now have a right eye which is bloodshot to match the red of the left! Ah sweet high! And from what I’ve learned, not even residing in jail can keep a good high down. I’m agog at this. The atmosphere this evening is completely contrary to the norm. The weather, I suspect not so coincidentally, broke through as well. Smiles, sun, basketball, social intercourse beyond the stifled and musty standard that begs the opening of windows. This place is airing out and the breeze feels good! I’m intrigued at how the walls that can exist between each and every one of us in red can literally fall away with a little help. Walls built with bricks of ego and the mortar of attitude. Appearing strong and durable at first sight and just as so at the hundredth sight. But throw a ‘stone’ at its apparently formidable construction and it collapses like a controlled demolition. Ill conceived and cheaply built? Or the amazing power of a stone? Given the constituents of this place, I’ll conclude equal parts both. Thinking on this, I’m completely in the dark as to what percentage to assign to either. 75% bad workmanship-25% stone? 25% cheap materials-75% stone? 60%-40%? It’s debatable any way you’d slice it so I’ll just go with 50%-50% for now but I’ll try to keep my observations attuned to this relation over time. I’m still relatively fresh to this place. Give me six more months and I’ll have just that much more insight to aid my conclusions. Oh, what do you know?! i just happen to have 178 days left, or six months. Convenient, that.