Dedication

Easter is looming.

We will be titivating our road this week in preparation for the oncoming hordes...

(Pssst! The first mushrooms are popping up)

Roadman's Warning

Dawn, Te Kuiti.

We have been digging up patches of our road this week.

It's all part of our "Congest The Traffic" Scheme.

Having lovingly filled them with the choicest road metal, and hoed lime and cement into them, they are graded, watered and lovingly tended till the Sealing Gang can add the final touches.

It's always a bit tense as you watch the weather, and pray the tar truck can do it's thing before it rains.

A day or two's rain and basically you have to start again.

One look at the sky this morning and I thought we would be tempting fate...

The tar truck arrived twenty minutes after the rain.

Still, "Practice makes perfect" ...

Loading Zone

Slowly order is coming from chaos...

A file recovery program is rescuing a gazillion mp3 files...

The router which was fired in last weeks electrical storm still needs a swift belt every now and then, and needs to be retired.

I've still lost a lot of stuff,  but hey, who needs it...

Anyway, I'm coming to you live from a new computer...

See how the letters are all shiny.....

 

Westward Oh!

Dang!

So far I have smoked up the old C drive, and had a slight formatting accident...

It takes a while to recover 44 days worth of mp3's...

Why can't computers be hydraulic? 

Westward Ho ...

Ahm gonna migrate...

Ahm off to a new computer, way over on the clean side of my computer desk.

This is not without serious risk.

There is the great divide - a pile of paraphenalia and coffee cups - The Tangy Fruitburst lolly paper quicksands, and the wildwood cable tangle.

And of course, the Injun Country that is my beer cans and bottle collection...

But much as I love the old place, a man has to do what a man has to do ...

Ah'l see you in the promised land ...

Thank you for the all the touching comments.

I must confess I had a wee weep over the keyboard.

If you can, Give your Mum a hug.

Thank you so much again.

We really do live on a small planet.

My dear old Mum died in her sleep this morning.

So it's going to be a bit quiet here for a while...

Response Time...

We are supposed to be able to respond to an accident/incident on our network within an hour...

I wonder if I should pass him ?  

Piopio Fire Engine, Bexley Corner

Close To Home

There is something surreal about working at night, in a storm, with a chainsaw.

Flashing lights, spotlights, and the chainsaw stangely quiet in the hissing wind, and torrential rain.

The road in places is green with leaves stripped from the trees, they are bloody slippery too, as the odd motorist, pressing on regardless, found out.

There is always too, that unlucky chance, of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sadly this happened in Taumaranui, a motorcyclist was killed.

The damage above is my new firewood supply, right up against the house fence.

A bloody great tree, that brought down a few neighbours as well.


The water line is under there somewhere, fortunately unbroken.

To add insult, you finally get to the depot to get some premix out of the bin, (to feed the vigerous new outbreak of potholes)... and have to cut your way in ...

It Was A Dark & Soggy Night ...

Who's been a busy boy then ....

This truck carrying a 12 metre long container of scrap fell over about 200 metres beyond the scene of a furniture truck's misadventure a while back.

The driver, wearing a seatbelt was unscathed. Had he not, he would probably have ended up in the passengers side footwell and would have suffered for it.

But what a mess!

The salvage truck winched the container and trailer off the road.
Then the heavens opened and it was a dark and soggy night.

It rained so hard it was pointless trying to take photographs.


Since then a couple of guys have been refilling the container with a small Hiab.

The one with the latest in safety footwear is talking to the driver of the Side-lifter which will take it away.

It was good to see it go ...

Throw in a hell of a storm ... (later!)
and it has been a busy time out there...

News From The Nick

Mr D Fart
Fart Towers
Kamikaze Corner.

Re Accident 17 02 07

I wish to advise you that there will be no further action taken by the Police Dept.

I. Nabbem
Senior Constable

Bugger !

I was hoping the gentleman concerned would at least get a ritual flogging ...

Radar Love ...

"The National Party has again voiced its suspicions that the police are working to a traffic ticket quota under a government-encouraged revenue gathering scheme."
NZH

Meanwhile, in the roadworks on the main road in Mokau township, that gentleman in the yellow vest is doing a good trade.

An Early Breakfast

Fresh Mussels for starters

Venison sausages with onion, pumpkin, and spuds

Custard twist for dessert.

Coffee.

Potted

"A woman who called Napier police this morning to report a burglary became so upset she broke down in tears - although the police communications officer who took the initial call couldn't stop smiling.

The call left senior sergeant Mal Lochrie shaking his head as he explained that the woman had called to report the theft of three marijuana plants which she had growing in pots outside.

She also bitterly complained that it was the fourth year in a row someone had sneaked on to her Ahuriri property and made off with her marijuana plants.

Mr Lochrie said the woman told the communications operator she was a good person and was sick and tired of "low-lifes" stealing her things.

"The community constable is going around to see her later to have a bit of a chat," Mr Lochrie said."
NZH

Ho Hum ...

Poets* Day today

Hardly worth a click was it ...
(piss off early, tomorrows saturday)

Hard Labour

There is a bit of a fencing job coming up.

70 odd post holes have to be dug by hand.

Not usually a problem, except it is in an area of hard rock.

There is a strange lack of volunteers.

They are a soft lot some of them on the road these days.

I would - but I do have very urgent business elsewhere.

A pressing engagement really ...

I have to drive an air conditioned roller a hundred kilometres away.

I volunteered for it.

Not that I knew there was a fencing job coming up ...

It's just coincidental ...

Dear Immigration Dept....

 
New Zealand is very short of Engineers.

Especially Civil ones...

I have found a whole bunch.

They would be very welcome ....

Even the uncivil ones....

Milking Hours

Working on the road has it's moments
At any moment a carefully planned work day can be disrupted.

This milk tanker has ground to a halt on a steep hill, in a rather dodgy place.
Fortunately a fellow worker came across it and by parking a vehicle with flashing lights on the corner and lots of arm waving managed to warn and direct traffic.

Another tanker has to be brought in to pump out the load.This only leaves room for cars and nervous camper van drivers to get through.
 
Eventually a heavy tow truck arrives and another truck to take the trailer.After a bit of fiddling with air lines it is dragged to a pull off area at the top of the hill, and from there to hospital.


Looks easy, but this takes all day...

Forensics

A day of investigation and surveying the scene of yesterdays accident.

The Police Serious Crash Unit gather evidence, take measurements and photographs, and do skid tests.

The car will also be examined closely.

If you are a Kiwi, there is an interesting TV programme on how they work.

We usually find out the reasons for a local crash at the inevitable next one ...

Death In The Afternoon

This afternoon a siren screamed past; a police car.

I had been doing manly things with a chainsaw and wasn't sure if other emergency services had also gone by.

I talked myself into believing that just an errant speedster had been busted ... No worries.

I filled my thermos "in case."

For I am truly an old and cunning roadworker.

Sure enough the phone eventually rang.

This car with 5 aboard had left the road south of Mahoenui.

Unfortunately an elderly woman in the back seat died.

Two helicopters were used to ferry the others to hospital.

A strange crash. No other vehicles involved, No sign of any braking. A very heavy impact.

The usual long wait for police photographers, Serious Crash Unit, Undertaker, Tow truck etc.

It doesn't stop there. Tomorrow morning they will survey the road and try and explain a puzzling accident.

Meanwhile In Galway ...

"A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week.

Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.

Solicitor for the accused Ms Sharon Fitzhenry said that her client had been through a difficult time lately and that his wife had left him and that his life had become increasingly lonely.

“Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey,” she said.

She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like “Isn’t that right, Donkey?”

Supt John McBrearty told the court that Mr McCarney who had signed in as “ Mr Shrek” had told hotel staff that the donkey was a family pet and that this was believed by the hotel receptionist who the supt said was “young and hadn’t great English.”

Receptionist Irina Legova said that Mr McCarney had told her that the donkey was a breed of “super rabbit” which he was bringing to a pet fair in the city. The court was told that the donkey went berserk in the middle of the night and ran amok in the hotel corridor, forcing hotel staff to call the gardai.

McCarney was found in the room wearing a latex suit and handcuffs, the key to which the donkey is believed to have swallowed. He was removed to Mill St station after which it is said he was the subject of much mirth among the lads next door in The Galway Arms.

He was fined €2,000 for bringing the donkey to the room under the Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837. Other charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

The white page...

The blinking cursor ...

Bugger this,

I'm back to the couch ....