Saw the old city hall plaza downtown getting repaved. The crew was using a ride-on trowel on a slab that must have been 80 yards.

Made me think about how we used to do everything by hand with fresnos and jitterbugs on jobs that size. My first foreman, Sal, would have called that machine cheating. But watching them, they had that finish glass-smooth in what, twenty minutes? It was impressive, but part of me misses the quiet of a big, flat pour at dawn with just the sound of a magnesium float. Do you guys ever get that feeling, or is it just me being an old timer?

4 comments

4 Comments

wendy1313mo agoTop Commenter

Read about that... the quiet is gone now.

hollyl253mo ago

My street used to be silent after 10pm. Now there's always a siren or a car alarm. It really does feel like the quiet got turned off.

jamie9403mo ago

Used to think cities just got louder over time, but @hollyl25 is right about the quiet being turned off. My old apartment had that same dead silence at night, and now it's constant noise. It's not just more people, it feels like the background hum of everything got cranked up. When did you first notice it changing?

patricia_gonzalez21d ago

The other night I was trying to fall asleep and my neighbor's smoke detector started chirping because the battery was dying. That stupid chirp went on for like two hours before they finally fixed it. It reminded me of when I lived near a fire station and got so used to the sirens that my brain just filtered them out. But now every little noise feels louder because there's no real quiet to reset your ears. It's like the city is always running a low grade anxiety hum in the background.