Flattened

I was relieved to see all the big cross cranes I see from work were ok today, after last night's ferocious storm. It was still pretty full on today and the 2 cranes I see on the hospital site remained pointing into the wind (the heavier shorter end into the wind and the longer arm down wind) as it was too windy to use them.

My crane education continued too. Foreman Grant told me they have to be careful they don't leave the mechanism locked that allows the crane to self correct as the wind direction changes. It's similar to a wind vane if that makes any sense. It they're left locked the crane will topple over as there will be no give in wind gusts and directional changes.

The weather was too messy to bike. Many signs were smashed or lying flat on the nearly 10 minute walk from car to office. On the other side of the road walking back to my car, these interlinked fences had toppled in the wind and lay flattened on the foot path.

They're common fences in Christchurch used to block off access to land where quake damaged buildings have been demolished and the land is left bare. I haven't seen them flattened by wind before.

Those clouds in over the peninsula extended around to my right. It was a race between me and the closing in weather. I won. Just, making it in my door at home just as another heavy squall of hail rained down.

I was home early to meet a couple of guys tasked with taking tests throughout my home for asbestos. There are probably around 20 little duck tape patches on ceilings and walls. The test results will be ready tomorrow and then a report is sent to Fletcher. Then what? How long is a piece of string?

The only place they didn't take samples from was up in the loft. It's been left off the scope of works, but there is a crack in the apex of the ceiling where 2 sheets of plaster board meet. So when I show that to someone for a second time, there will be a variation to the scope of works, and the guys will have to come back to take more samples to test for the presence of asbestos. Yeah, it's pretty mickey mouse.

Oddly I was supposed to have tests for asbestos done before my first lot of repairs, but they were never done. I mentioned that today and one of the guys told me he worked on repairs for a while as a painter and plasterer. He said that was common with the contractor pocketing the money and no testing taking place.

Anyway, this time there is asbestos testing, there is progress, and eventually my home will be repaired again.

I had a nice run tonight too. It was cold. We started with sleet, then it stopped, later there was rain, and the wind was cold. Other than that is was really good ;-)