A bit tired

I was woken up before 4:30 this morning.

Don't go blaming my darling cherubs.

Although usually if I tell this story it involves someone under 7 years old yelling "MOMMY!" and me scurrying to bring the yeller back in our bed to get him/her to go back to sleep. Sometimes it works. But then I lay awake.

This time the story involves jack-hammers. At 4:30 in the morning.

We live on a state highway. That inherently brings traffic and noise. Several years ago we needed the gas company to come in the evening to dig a hole when there was a gas leak. I recognize when loud noises are necessary for public safety.

However, this was the town Department of Public Works (DPW) using jack hammers to dig up - I kid you not - two traffic islands near our house at 4:30 in the morning.

There is no public safety reason to jack-hammer traffic islands at 4:30 in the morning.

So my husband went down to investigate and call the police. They told him it was a DPW issue. We live in one of, if not the only, state that requires a police detail for all public works project. He told the dispatcher there was no detail at the site. That got their attention. There was a police officer within 5 minutes. He also left a message on the work number of the DPW director. He joked he should have found his home number to wake him up. I told him that if our kids woke up we were calling the DPW director at his home. Somehow the kids slept through the entire thing. I did not.

I left the house at 6:55 am and the jack hammers were still going. The DPW director called my husband at 7:05 am to apologize profusely and explain he didn't know how this happened.

When asked what the crew was doing, the director said they were tearing up the traffic islands to put in flowers.

Let me repeat, I was woken up before 4:30 in the morning for frigging flower beds.