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Jul. 15th, 2009 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogThe drain cleaning service that our handyman sent over to resolve the backing-up of waster water into our basement came by with a big chrome machine that looked like it came from 1940 to clean out the pipes. I commented on how neat the machine looked and he told me that, though it was built in '95, it follows basically the same design that's been used for probably fifty years.
That bit of conversation lead to me spending about forty-five minutes talking to him about manufacturing in Chicago, the basements and secret places of the old buildings in that city that he's worked in, how Chicago managed to maintain its place in society while rust belt cities like Detroit, Gary, and Pittsburgh fell, and about abandoned buildings that I'd been to and what they were like, and the history of the raising of street levels in Chicago that made first-floors into basements and how he'd stood on what used to be a sidewalk seventy years ago that was now below street level.
It was awesome!
And he cut through all the roots that were blocking the drain too, so our basement will stop flooding when we wash clothes!
And for bonus points, as we talked about how roots grow into pipes and what that means for their integrity, he made a comment about how trees are 'living things, struggling for life like everything else'.
This was all just conversation that I totally did not expect from someone who looked younger than me and, well, kind of mainstream. Maybe I don't give the general population enough credit. He was so interesting to talk to that I'd actually kind of like to see him again. Maybe go exploring or something. Maybe I should have asked him.
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I put in for time off for the New York trip. I think it will be fun.
This weekend will consist of Moira and I going to visit![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anarchist_nomad while he's in country on Saturday (which happens to be the date of our anniversary! Whee!) and, on Sunday, a bicycle trip around downtown Chicago for me. At least, that's the plan as of now. Anybody want to go with?
That bit of conversation lead to me spending about forty-five minutes talking to him about manufacturing in Chicago, the basements and secret places of the old buildings in that city that he's worked in, how Chicago managed to maintain its place in society while rust belt cities like Detroit, Gary, and Pittsburgh fell, and about abandoned buildings that I'd been to and what they were like, and the history of the raising of street levels in Chicago that made first-floors into basements and how he'd stood on what used to be a sidewalk seventy years ago that was now below street level.
It was awesome!
And he cut through all the roots that were blocking the drain too, so our basement will stop flooding when we wash clothes!
And for bonus points, as we talked about how roots grow into pipes and what that means for their integrity, he made a comment about how trees are 'living things, struggling for life like everything else'.
This was all just conversation that I totally did not expect from someone who looked younger than me and, well, kind of mainstream. Maybe I don't give the general population enough credit. He was so interesting to talk to that I'd actually kind of like to see him again. Maybe go exploring or something. Maybe I should have asked him.
==============
I put in for time off for the New York trip. I think it will be fun.
This weekend will consist of Moira and I going to visit
anarchist_nomad while he's in country on Saturday (which happens to be the date of our anniversary! Whee!) and, on Sunday, a bicycle trip around downtown Chicago for me. At least, that's the plan as of now. Anybody want to go with?
