DITCHED STILL

I am still obsessed by the digger in the ditch (see previous blog entries). It's still there. I've learned that the owners can't afford to get it out and that they did all the right stuff when it fell into the ditch - they removed any fuel, etc., called the city, they even tried to get a crane in, but due to the narrow farm roads, the crane was not able to maneuverer a rescue. The city has been giving them advice in how to best rescue their 20,000 tonne machine (this weight is noted in a local newspaper article, though I suspect they meant pounds, not tonnes).

Driving home yesterday, I noticed the crane was now an odd neon green. It had either been vandalized or the owners were blowing off some steam. I stopped my car for a picture, but there were men on the property (and in the ditch) working and I wussied out. I did notice one fellow was moving chunks of broken concrete to the property from a truck down the road. Was he dumping it in the ditch? No idea. Maybe they were trying to strengthen the dirt bridge that was built up from the road, through the ditch and to the property. I gather they did they to keep the machine from sinking further into the ditch, and perhaps to aid in getting other machines to the land to attempt rescue (and apparently provide easy access for some people with neon green spray-paint).

Since I am obsessed and a wussy and didn't get my photo, I somehow convinced my husband, upon his return home from work, to drive us past the site so I could snap a photo via the passenger window. A couple of hours had passed by, maybe all the guys that had previously been there were gone. My husband is very cool. And patient. And tolerant of my strange hobbies.

The photo did not exactly turn out.

We went and had dinner and tried again, but the photo just looked like a crane in a ditch in the dark. Nothing new, nothing funny, nothing neon.

This morning I passed by again, on my way to work. Nobody was there. So I parked my car at a nearby winery (my thanks to them) and walked the edge of the ditch to snap a picture. The lesson I have learned is this: If you are going to sneaky take a picture of a digger in a ditch, make sure your stupid camera's stupid battery is charged. No bother, I did get this shot. And then I laughed all the way to work.

Now again, I stress how tolerant my husband is of my insanity. Before he kindly took our daughter on a school field trip, he grabbed his camera and snapped a few good photos of the submerged, graffitied excavator.

The city has obviously come in between the time I took my photo this morning and the time my husband took his photos because in his shots there are more traffic cones and a city saw-horse announcing that yes, it's Richmond. You don't see stuff like this just anywhere and Richmond drivers are quite famous for being the worst in the world, excavator drivers included, it seems.

I will say, if I ever found out that my kid had pulled a graffiti stunt, I'd give them a good swift boot to the backside, but I can't help but find this funny. In case you cannot read the writing, the roof of the digger says STUDENT DRIVER and the arm of the digger says GET ME OUT. I am ashamed that I find this funny, but I do. And the neon green traffic cone on top makes me laugh even harder.

That there are now two more machines on the property, working to free this giant machine from the ditch, is even funnier still, visually. I am not proud, but I think it's hilarious.

I can't imagine how many more updates there will be in regards to this little accident. Eventually I suppose I'll have to post a picture of an empty ditch. I'll be a little bit sad on that day, though I'm certain it won't take long to find something else just as stupid to amuse me.