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So, yeah...
So, yeah, the bridge. I was going to post something, and then I wasn't, and then I was, and then...
It seems silly, but I was actually a bit nervous about going across the new one. The days leading up to it being open for business again had me remembering the night it fell, something I have quite happily avoided for the most part until now. I remembered being stuck in traffic that wasn't moving. I remember the smoke and the dust and the sound of the jackhammers and the twisted green of the rebar sticking up from the half-carved cement. I remember looking at the clock in the car and it saying 5:57 pm while I was halfway across, literally banging my head on the headrest out of pure frustration that we were barely crawling along. I remember pulling up to the house, walking up the steps, and my partner watching the news on the tv in the bedroom. She flipped it off as I walked in and, before we started talking about our days, the lights flickered and there was a sound that really did not sound like the construction noises of the weeks leading up to that night.
Then the phone rang, and my partner answered it to find my hysterical mother on the line demanding to speak to me. She was over at my aunt and uncle's with several other relatives that were visiting and they had been watching the news. She burst into tears and I heard my family doing something odd for us - praying and thanking deities in the background while my mother demanded we turn on the news and see what happened. My aunt pulled her away and told me she fully planned on getting her stone drunk. I couldn't understand why - I wasn't on it, I missed it. It fell at 6:05 pm.
We did not have the boys that night and decided we really needed a drink. We walked the short distance to Dinkytown, watching half the students milling around on their cell phones as they came back from class, having no idea what just happened literally blocks away. We went to the Dubliner, got some pints, and watched the news roll in. We still have not told the boys what time I got home that night.
It wasn't until later that I found out that my partner didn't sleep for several nights. It wasn't until later I realized just what kind of an impact the whole thing was on daily life, not to mention the commute to work. I bitched, I complained, I dealt with detour after detour and with being stuck on an exit ramp to yet another detour home every night for anywhere between ten to thirty minutes and the helicopters that circled anytime there was any sort of update. I never once stopped to watch the new bridge be built. Part of me was curious, but most of me was determined not to be one of the annoying gawkers slowing down traffic and blocking the sidewalk.
I drove across the new bridge on the morning it opened. It was such a total and complete non-event. It's wider, and higher, and seemed brighter somehow. I shrugged and continued to work and took it home again that night. When I went to sleep, I saw the images playing through like some kind of warped news reel and swear I could smell the burning plastic and rubber and feel the clouds of dust on me again. I really think that's when it truly hit me for the first time. It did before, but not to this extent, if that makes any sense.
I wasn't on it, but I was affected by it. Unlike people who missed it by hours and live miles away, I have no plan on suing for mental distress. That money should go to the people who were actually physically injured, not that much is getting to them with all the opportunistic asses out there. Speaking of money, the construction firm made an extra $27 million dollars for finishing early. Most of that is going to pay overtime wages for their workers, and I don't fault them for that. What I do find odd is that the proposed memorial has a price tag of only $1 million dollars, and so far has only half the funding. Some of this funding has come from the construction company, but they have kept it rather low key, not flaunting it, which is actually rather nice. Hopefully, there will be enough donations. Hopefully, it will not be forgotten now that the replacement is in place.
So, yeah, this is what I am thinking about tonight, sitting in our back room with the window open to the sound of rushing cars for the first time in over a year, sipping at something I'm kind of wishing was stronger than Sprite.
It seems silly, but I was actually a bit nervous about going across the new one. The days leading up to it being open for business again had me remembering the night it fell, something I have quite happily avoided for the most part until now. I remembered being stuck in traffic that wasn't moving. I remember the smoke and the dust and the sound of the jackhammers and the twisted green of the rebar sticking up from the half-carved cement. I remember looking at the clock in the car and it saying 5:57 pm while I was halfway across, literally banging my head on the headrest out of pure frustration that we were barely crawling along. I remember pulling up to the house, walking up the steps, and my partner watching the news on the tv in the bedroom. She flipped it off as I walked in and, before we started talking about our days, the lights flickered and there was a sound that really did not sound like the construction noises of the weeks leading up to that night.
Then the phone rang, and my partner answered it to find my hysterical mother on the line demanding to speak to me. She was over at my aunt and uncle's with several other relatives that were visiting and they had been watching the news. She burst into tears and I heard my family doing something odd for us - praying and thanking deities in the background while my mother demanded we turn on the news and see what happened. My aunt pulled her away and told me she fully planned on getting her stone drunk. I couldn't understand why - I wasn't on it, I missed it. It fell at 6:05 pm.
We did not have the boys that night and decided we really needed a drink. We walked the short distance to Dinkytown, watching half the students milling around on their cell phones as they came back from class, having no idea what just happened literally blocks away. We went to the Dubliner, got some pints, and watched the news roll in. We still have not told the boys what time I got home that night.
It wasn't until later that I found out that my partner didn't sleep for several nights. It wasn't until later I realized just what kind of an impact the whole thing was on daily life, not to mention the commute to work. I bitched, I complained, I dealt with detour after detour and with being stuck on an exit ramp to yet another detour home every night for anywhere between ten to thirty minutes and the helicopters that circled anytime there was any sort of update. I never once stopped to watch the new bridge be built. Part of me was curious, but most of me was determined not to be one of the annoying gawkers slowing down traffic and blocking the sidewalk.
I drove across the new bridge on the morning it opened. It was such a total and complete non-event. It's wider, and higher, and seemed brighter somehow. I shrugged and continued to work and took it home again that night. When I went to sleep, I saw the images playing through like some kind of warped news reel and swear I could smell the burning plastic and rubber and feel the clouds of dust on me again. I really think that's when it truly hit me for the first time. It did before, but not to this extent, if that makes any sense.
I wasn't on it, but I was affected by it. Unlike people who missed it by hours and live miles away, I have no plan on suing for mental distress. That money should go to the people who were actually physically injured, not that much is getting to them with all the opportunistic asses out there. Speaking of money, the construction firm made an extra $27 million dollars for finishing early. Most of that is going to pay overtime wages for their workers, and I don't fault them for that. What I do find odd is that the proposed memorial has a price tag of only $1 million dollars, and so far has only half the funding. Some of this funding has come from the construction company, but they have kept it rather low key, not flaunting it, which is actually rather nice. Hopefully, there will be enough donations. Hopefully, it will not be forgotten now that the replacement is in place.
So, yeah, this is what I am thinking about tonight, sitting in our back room with the window open to the sound of rushing cars for the first time in over a year, sipping at something I'm kind of wishing was stronger than Sprite.
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My only money issues are the selfish, heartless, greedy brats that are stealing the recompensation funds from where they should actually be spent, and one group of morons protesting the memorial because they think it's a waste of money and ignores the people killed in traffic accidents each year. This wasn't an accident. This wasn't two or three cars bouncing off of each other. This was a structure that was supposed to be safe and regulated collapsing and killing people because the state screwed up and did nothing about fixing it for ten years after they were notified of the problem.
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(Anonymous) 2008-09-22 12:58 am (UTC)(link)- me