THEY'RE BAAAAAACK

Like the poltergeists in the movie of the same name, the spooks that have occupied many sleeping and most of my waking moments over the last eight weeks are back.

It all starts with a noise -- a steady pounding as if someone is breaking rocks far, far away.Then it becomes a torrent of voices.  The rain makes it difficult to gauge exactly where and what is going on -- perhaps the railroad has maintenance going on at the train crossing or something. I don't really pay it much attention, though, until I look outsidemy front window.

Damnit.  Columbia Gas is blocking my driveway ... again.

I run upstairs to look out the windows that have more expansive views of the area.  Sure enough, not only is the gas company back, but they are digging up the pipes in the dangerous intersection again.  This is unbelievable; they're supposed to be done over here.  All the major work is supposed to have been completed in my zone (Zone 1) and my neighborhoods, but here they are digging it all up again as if nothing had every been done. 

My driveway is blocked, my street is blocked, and my patience is blocked.  I could understand if they were going house to house to collect their garbage from our basements: dead furnaces, extra hot water heaters, old pipes and hoses, vents they tore down installing new pipes, stone pieces they left behind while drilling through my foundation.

I can hear them; I can see them when they flit past to get to one of their trucks.  They're not in my house, but they're haunting me, taunting me: "We're here but not here."  It's a huge mind-f*** when you never know who will be inside your house when you step out of the shower or come up the stairs from doing laundry.

The gas company is like poltergeists: other-worldly entities responsible for wreaking havoc, noise, and moved objects into my life then disappearing after creating chaos.