Apples. Who knew they would be so valuable in our family. Apples first began as a healthy snack that we especially love with peanut butter and chocolate, to now a means of showing frustration and actually providing peace. Gavin has been very adamant about eating an apple a day. He strongly believes in the quote from Benjamin Franklin, “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” For years he has insisted that everyone of us eat an apple a day. Whenever someone begins to get a cold he says “it is because they haven’t been eating apples“. Apples cure just about everything in our family. We have seen the results of a healthy family with very few cases of the flu or common colds. But who knew that apples would also become a means of getting people’s attention and stopping a whole construction site to complete silence. As many of you know, we are living right smack in the middle of a construction zone which has been operating non stop. This has become quite irritating in that we rarely have a moment of peace around our house. Sleep has become a rarity which is having a huge affect on my happiness. Apples have become our way of sending a message of our annoyance of the noise and inconsiderate people who continue to feel it is necessary to keep us awake night after night. Last night the large trucks were at work again being loading by noisy machinery dumping concrete and debris into the trucks to haul away. This was going on all night again along with the constant sound of the drill or some other noisy machinery. At 3:00 in the morning as the trucks were driving out of the site, one honked. That was the turning point. People honk all the time here for no good reason. It really is annoying and then to have the trucks start to honk as they drove away on top of all the other noise for no apparent reason but to annoy us, sent Gavin over the edge. Out came the bowl of apples. He went up on the roof and starting throwing them at the trucks. Of course, they stopped and got out which started a yelling match with neither party understanding the other because they were yelling in Chinese and Gavin in English. He had enough of this lack of consideration for others. We have a family trying to sleep and they feel it necessary to continue working all night long keeping us up and then the honking. Really? Is that necessary? Well, Gavin grabbed his bike and took off to finally confront them. I was really nervous because he was all alone and there were quite a few of them out there. Who knew what would happen but what happens next is just too funny. The guys in the truck just stood there for a few minutes after Gavin stopped yelling and jumped on his bike. They were looking around like what do we do? Where did he go? They finally got in their truck and drove a few meters down the dirt road towards the main road and stopped. The passenger got out of his truck to fill out some paperwork. The driver was apparently in the truck looking in his mirrors because when he saw Gavin racing towards them from behind on his bike, he quickly started to drive off. The other guy not knowing what was going on ran “like a bunny” as Gavin explains it and jumped back in the truck while it was driving away. They literally were afraid of a guy on a bike and wanted to get the heck out of there. They couldn’t go very fast because of the dirt road so Gavin was able to keep up with them. When they got on the main road, they sped up; but Gavin kept going because he figured they would have to slow down to turn eventually. The main road only lasted about a ½ a mile until it veered sharply to the right so Gavin kept them in site but they didn’t slow down enough for Gavin to catch up but he was still in visual site. He kept going because he knew that there was a stop light a few hundred yards ahead after they turned where they would have to either turn right or left but that didn’t stop them either. The light was red and they just swerved around the other trucks and turned from the other lane. Remember it is 3:00 a.m. so there wasn’t much traffic but driving in the other lane here is a typical thing. Gavin knew that there was another light only a short distance away so again he kept going on his bike. The light was red which didn’t stop them. They barreled right on through the light. The chase continued for a few more minutes through town until Gavin finally just turned around and came back when he realized that they were not going to let him catch up. Quite the funny picture. A huge truck with two men trying to run away from a foreigner on a bike pedaling as fast as he could. Crazy. The crazy thing is, they completely shut down the construction after that for the night. We had a few hours of peace and quiet during the night but we were so wound up, we couldn’t enjoy it and actually sleep. Would you have ever thought that apples could stop an entire construction site? They truly are our life savers. Not only physically but now mentally by providing both an outlet of frustration by throwing them and then actually stopping the noise, even if it was for just a few hours. Of course the noise continues. It is almost 9:30 at night and we are again being serenaded by the squeaky drill, the jack hammers, the trucks, the bull dozers, and whatever else it is that is making noise out there. Good thing we have a huge stash of apples ready and on call if someone dares to honk there horn tonight.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Our Life Savers
Apples. Who knew they would be so valuable in our family. Apples first began as a healthy snack that we especially love with peanut butter and chocolate, to now a means of showing frustration and actually providing peace. Gavin has been very adamant about eating an apple a day. He strongly believes in the quote from Benjamin Franklin, “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away.” For years he has insisted that everyone of us eat an apple a day. Whenever someone begins to get a cold he says “it is because they haven’t been eating apples“. Apples cure just about everything in our family. We have seen the results of a healthy family with very few cases of the flu or common colds. But who knew that apples would also become a means of getting people’s attention and stopping a whole construction site to complete silence. As many of you know, we are living right smack in the middle of a construction zone which has been operating non stop. This has become quite irritating in that we rarely have a moment of peace around our house. Sleep has become a rarity which is having a huge affect on my happiness. Apples have become our way of sending a message of our annoyance of the noise and inconsiderate people who continue to feel it is necessary to keep us awake night after night. Last night the large trucks were at work again being loading by noisy machinery dumping concrete and debris into the trucks to haul away. This was going on all night again along with the constant sound of the drill or some other noisy machinery. At 3:00 in the morning as the trucks were driving out of the site, one honked. That was the turning point. People honk all the time here for no good reason. It really is annoying and then to have the trucks start to honk as they drove away on top of all the other noise for no apparent reason but to annoy us, sent Gavin over the edge. Out came the bowl of apples. He went up on the roof and starting throwing them at the trucks. Of course, they stopped and got out which started a yelling match with neither party understanding the other because they were yelling in Chinese and Gavin in English. He had enough of this lack of consideration for others. We have a family trying to sleep and they feel it necessary to continue working all night long keeping us up and then the honking. Really? Is that necessary? Well, Gavin grabbed his bike and took off to finally confront them. I was really nervous because he was all alone and there were quite a few of them out there. Who knew what would happen but what happens next is just too funny. The guys in the truck just stood there for a few minutes after Gavin stopped yelling and jumped on his bike. They were looking around like what do we do? Where did he go? They finally got in their truck and drove a few meters down the dirt road towards the main road and stopped. The passenger got out of his truck to fill out some paperwork. The driver was apparently in the truck looking in his mirrors because when he saw Gavin racing towards them from behind on his bike, he quickly started to drive off. The other guy not knowing what was going on ran “like a bunny” as Gavin explains it and jumped back in the truck while it was driving away. They literally were afraid of a guy on a bike and wanted to get the heck out of there. They couldn’t go very fast because of the dirt road so Gavin was able to keep up with them. When they got on the main road, they sped up; but Gavin kept going because he figured they would have to slow down to turn eventually. The main road only lasted about a ½ a mile until it veered sharply to the right so Gavin kept them in site but they didn’t slow down enough for Gavin to catch up but he was still in visual site. He kept going because he knew that there was a stop light a few hundred yards ahead after they turned where they would have to either turn right or left but that didn’t stop them either. The light was red and they just swerved around the other trucks and turned from the other lane. Remember it is 3:00 a.m. so there wasn’t much traffic but driving in the other lane here is a typical thing. Gavin knew that there was another light only a short distance away so again he kept going on his bike. The light was red which didn’t stop them. They barreled right on through the light. The chase continued for a few more minutes through town until Gavin finally just turned around and came back when he realized that they were not going to let him catch up. Quite the funny picture. A huge truck with two men trying to run away from a foreigner on a bike pedaling as fast as he could. Crazy. The crazy thing is, they completely shut down the construction after that for the night. We had a few hours of peace and quiet during the night but we were so wound up, we couldn’t enjoy it and actually sleep. Would you have ever thought that apples could stop an entire construction site? They truly are our life savers. Not only physically but now mentally by providing both an outlet of frustration by throwing them and then actually stopping the noise, even if it was for just a few hours. Of course the noise continues. It is almost 9:30 at night and we are again being serenaded by the squeaky drill, the jack hammers, the trucks, the bull dozers, and whatever else it is that is making noise out there. Good thing we have a huge stash of apples ready and on call if someone dares to honk there horn tonight.
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1 comment:
Love the way you write. You made this image come to life and I couldn't help but laugh. Of course, I realize that it is not funny to have constant noise that is so loud and annoying. That would probably drive me crazy - crazier. This too shall come to pass.
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