Living with the Mess

I’m writing this short blog as an update on our construction dilemma. We have been living with this state of affairs for over a year now. It started during the COVID lockdown, and the yellow jacket guys keep coming. Meanwhile, Rooster and I are living with the mess.

List of construction updates while living with the mess.

1). The construction guys have covered up the twenty-foot deep hole in the middle of the street.

2). We have new sidewalks in front of our house.

3). They are still churning up a lot of dust. Every surface in my house is covered with a thick layer of grime. I don’t believe it is good to be breathing all the contamination, especially in a pandemic.

4). Rumors are flying the city has plans to tear down the abandoned factory across the street and build low-income apartments. We’re looking at two years of construction in the future.

Consequences of living with the mess

The Aretha Franklin song, Rescue Me, keeps playing over and over in my head. Rooster and I have taken several mini-vacations in the past two months to escape all the mess. My husband is starting to buy into my conspiracy theory. The truth is he’s as tired as I am of the annoyance.

If the city plans some gentrification for our small plot of earth, they might want to start with the guy who runs an illegal junkyard across the street. The officials have allowed it to go on for years. The worst part of the scenario is he doesn’t even live there. He dumbs broken down washing machines, deep freezers, and old kitchen stoves and leaves the scene. I could put up with the construction if they forced him to bring his property up to code.

There is an old cliche my mother used to use. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” I know you aren’t supposed to use these old saying when you write, but I feel like it is the most appropriate way to describe what our city is attempting to do if they don’t force the vanishing junkyard owner to clean up his act.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. The concrete guys showed up today to work on the sidewalk. This is an indication they may soon be finished. Yay!

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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