What makes him tick

I have already posted that our Monkey enjoys a daily tour of the construction site in our neighborhood. But what explains the lack of pictures? Parental sloth.

Note that the Monkey has possessed distinct sign language words for the following, all for some time now:

• Front loader ("scoop")
• Bulldozer
• Crane
• Cement truck
• Auger/Crane-mount drill
• Air compressor
• Jack hammer
• Hammer
• Screwdriver

...and many others.

In the larger scale picture, I estimate that they have dug about 25 feet down. I reach this estimate because the deepest point has 25 boards acting as retaining walls between I-beam pairs, and they look to be 4x12s (or at least 8/4x 12s). The assistant superintendant of the site tells me they're going down 50 feet. I guess what makes it tricky is that there is heavy rail and a metro station directly beneath them. (Don't go down 60'!)

In the smaller picture, note that the scoop in the photo is quite large. I have seen large dump trucks drive away with four scoop-loads of dirt, and they looked almost full.